Phonological awareness in elementary school students with low versus normal vision: a comparative study

ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate and compare the phonological awareness of low vision students with normal vision ones. Methods: this is a cross-sectional, descriptive and quantitative research that was performed through the application of the Oral Phonological Awareness Test, which is composed of ten subtests, with four items each. The population consisted of 30 students attending public elementary school, aged 8 to 14 years, and divided into two groups of 15 participants each: the study group and the control one. Results: the p value found was less than 1% for the Phonemic Synthesis, Rhyme, Phonemic Segmentation, Syllabic Manipulation, Phonemic Manipulation questionnaires, in addition to the two Phonemic Transposition questionnaires, thus, considering the significance level of 1%, and rejecting equality in the results of the questionnaires. Considering the significance level of 1%, and since the p-value obtained was less than 1%, a statistically significant difference was observed in the variance analysis of the sum of the points obtained in all questionnaires. Conclusion: The Study Group, which was represented by low vision students, had lower results in most of the subtests of the Oral Phonological Awareness Test, except for the Syllabic Synthesis test, in which they had similar results as those of the Control Group, represented by normal vision students.