Efficacy of a speech development program applied in children with phonological disorders

Abstract

Early attention to linguistic disorders is perceived as an action of the highest importance in order to avoid any obstacle in the communicational processes of the children and their possibilities of social and school participation. For this purposes, numerous language programs have been prepared in order to make easier the early development of the children linguistic abilities. However, very few programs have been experimentally evaluated. In this sense, this study shows the results of a research carried out with 5 and 6 year-old schoolchildren with Phonological Disorders. The aim of this work was to examine the effects of the program PRO.DE.AR.IN in children from schools of a similar socioeconomic level. A hundred children took part in the research divided into a group of 50 children as a control-group (33 boys and 17 girls) and children in the intervention group (30 boys and 20 girls). After the pre-test evaluation was made, a six month intervention was carried out and finally, a pot-test evaluation was implemented. In the pre-test, no significant differences between the two groups (experimental and control) were found. After the program was applied, significant statistical differences were observed in all variables between the experimental and the control group, verifying the importance of explicit teaching of strategies for the achievement of the phonological system in early ages.