PURPOSE: to compare the performance of children with phonological disorder and with typical language acquisition through tests of expressive vocabulary and phonological awareness, and to evaluate the age influence. METHOD: subjects divided into control group (CG) and study group (SG); aged between five and seven years old; tests of expressive vocabulary and phonological awareness were applied; the obtained data were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: comparing both groups, SG children aged five and seven years old showed some significantly lower results than the ones from CG; however, there was no difference between both groups for six years-old children in both skills of phonological awareness and vocabulary. Concerning the scores, lower than expected, the five years-old children presented difficulties in the same tasks of expressive vocabulary and phonological awareness, with complexity variations, except for the SG that showed a bigger difficulty to detect phoneme in word beginning. The six and seven years-old subjects had difficulties only with expressive vocabulary. CONCLUSION: children with phonological disorder showed lower performance in some skills of vocabulary and phonological awareness, when compared to children with typical development. It can also be concluded that age influences the performance in these skills for both groups.
Language Tests; Vocabulary; Semantics; Child Language; Language Development
