PURPOSE: to check the development of the adult-target phonological system in public school children, aged between 05 to 08 years with phonological deviation. METHODS: the active phonological processes were identified by digitally recording the audio in spontaneous speech samples, naming pictures, and mimicking words that make up a specific phonological test (ABFW). An activity program was employed to foster phonological awareness skills and the theoretical ground for the ranking of distinctive features. RESULTS: following the end of the program, the entire group of patients showed significant progress, having overcome all the existing phonological processes and acquired the features that were not present. The patients' phonological system broadened as their performance in phonological awareness activities improved. CONCLUSION: the phonetic approach to phonological deviation, when based on the ranking of distinctive features and on phonological awareness, favored the overcoming of phonological processes and the significant development of the patients' phonological system.
Speech Therapy; Phonetics; Speech; Language
