Extralinguistic variables, gender and age, in the self-awareness of speech impairment.

Background: Self-awareness of speech impairment according to the following extralinguistic variables: gender and age.

Aim: To examine the influence of gender and age on the self-awareness of speech impairment.

Method: Participants were 24 children with the diagnosis of phonological disorder, 15 boys and 9 girls, with ages ranging between 5:0 and 7:7 years. For this group the assessment of self-awareness of speech impairment was performed.

Results: Results indicated that 45.83% of the subjects presented self-awareness of speech impairment. There were no significant statistical differences between the studied extralinguistic variables and the self-awareness of speech impairment. However, a higher self-awareness of speech impairment was observed for six-year-old male children.

Conclusion: Children with phonological disorder can be self-aware of speech impairment; gender and age are not important factors for the development of this ability.