Characterization of the phonological system in low-income Brazilian preschoolers.

Audiological evaluation was not performed due to lack of access to services, relying instead on teacher/parent reports and observation, which may miss mild hearing losses. The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot map developmental trajectories or confirm if the atypical processes observed in the few children with liquid simplification persist. The sample was restricted to low-income public schools in one city, limiting generalizability to other socioeconomic groups or regions. Three participants were excluded post-hoc as outliers, which may have influenced the distribution of results.

No specific conflicts of interest or funding sources are detailed in the provided text, though the study was part of a longitudinal research project at a university.

Do not diagnose speech sound disorders based solely on consonant omissions or substitutions in the syllabic coda (such as /h/ or /R/). These patterns are often regional dialectal variations in Northeast Brazil rather than evidence of a phonological deficit.