Alliteration and rhyme skills in children with specific language impairment.

Purpose: this study investigated and compared the performance of school-aged children with specific language impairment (SLI) and their peers typically developing language in alliteration and rhyme tests. The study also aimed to evaluate the influence of semantic and phonological distractors on both tests.

Methods: twelve school-aged children with SLI (study group - SG) and 48 peers typically developing language (control group - CG) aged 7 to 9 years. All of them were on 2nd or 3rd grade and presented hearing thresholds within normal limits and appropriate nonverbal intellectual performance. The experimental assessment consisted in alliteration and rhyme tests with semantic and/or phonological distractors.

Results: intragroup analysis showed that both groups presented lower performance in rhyme than alliteration activities (CG p<.001; SG p=.011). Intergroup analyses revealed that the SG had a poorer performance in both tasks in comparison to the CG (alliteration p=.001; rhyme p=.009). The error analysis pointed out that in alliteration, the SG opted more frequently for semantic (p=.004) and other distractors (p<.001) than the CG, whereas in rhyme tests, they opted more frequently for phonological (p=.048) and other distractors (p=.031).

Conclusion: the SG presented difficulty in alliteration and rhyme tasks, indicating poorer performance than their peers without language impairment. School-aged children with SLI attested that they analyze phonological awareness stimuli in a more general way, leading them to overlook relevant segmental aspects. These data reinforce the need for early intervention of these abilities in this population.