Phonological Abilities Research Articles

A Bilingual Perspective on the Possible Universality of Phonological Awareness Skills Across Two Languages

Reading comprehension relies on the integration of phonological, semantic, syntactic and pragmatic language abilities. The current study investigated phonological awareness in six-year-old children’s mastery of reading in Maltese and English. The researchers recruited eighty-two bilingual participants attending bilingual schools in Malta and administered two parallel batteries comprising parallel word reading tests and phonological tasks in the two languages. Principal components analysis identified clear componential structures in both of the phonological batteries (Maltese and English). A statistical regression analysis identified similar phonological underpinnings across the two single word reading measures. Specific measures of phonological awareness constituted common phonological underpinnings of reading performance in both Maltese and English, if to different degrees. The results support the notion of similarity in the patterns of association of skills sustaining reading across Maltese and English in bilingual children. The view that the phonological skills underpinning reading development across alphabetic languages may not differ substantially between different orthographies is supported.

Cross-modal generalization of anomia treatment to reading in aphasia

ABSTRACT Background: Generalization of treatment effects is the ultimate goal of therapy. However, treatment generalization across language modalities is not well understood in the aphasia literature and requires further investigation. This work examined the generalization effects of two word retrieval therapies, Phonomotor Treatment (PMT) and Semantic Feature Analysis (SFA), to reading performance in individuals with aphasia. Aims: This cross-modal generalization investigation was motivated by the Primary Systems Hypothesis, which proposes reading ability is related to and dependent upon underlying phonological and semantic abilities. Therefore, this study sought to determine if enhanced phonological or semantic knowledge following anomia treatment could influence reading ability. Methods & Procedures: Reading data collected in a randomized control trial for anomia treatment were retrospectively analyzed. Fifty-eight participants with chronic aphasia were randomly assigned to receive intensive PMT (n = 28) or SFA (n = 30) treatment for 56–60 hours over 6–7 weeks. Reading measures were administered pre-, post- and 3 months after treatment. To identify and compare the extent of treatment generalization to reading, within-group and between-group analyses of variance were performed. Outcomes & Results: On average, participants in both groups showed positive changes in reading. The PMT group demonstrated significantly improved reading of regularly and irregularly spelled words. The SFA group showed significant gains in reading of regularly spelled words and sentence-level reading comprehension. No statistically significant differences in oral reading or reading comprehension were found between the groups before or after therapy. Conclusions: These preliminary findings support the Primary Systems Hypothesis and suggest a link between reading ability and phonological and semantic abilities. Results show that one anomia treatment was not superior to the other and the positive influence of both PMT and SFA suggests that reading might be enhanced via intensively delivered treatments that focus on the underlying phonological or semantic impairment. Further investigations of cross-modal treatment generalization are needed to help better understand this relationship between word retrieval and reading and its implication for aphasia treatment.

Guideline: Auditory processing and perception disorders: Proposal for treatment and management of APD : S1 guideline of the German Society of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology

Despite normal hearing thresholds in pure-tone audiometry, 0.5-1% of children have difficulty understanding what they hear. An auditory processing disorder (APD) can be assumed, which should be clarified and treated. In patients with hearing loss, this must first be compensated or resolved. Only hereafter can a suspected APD be confirmed or excluded. Diagnosis of APD requires that a clear discrepancy between the child's performance in individual auditory functions and other cognitive abilities be demonstrated. Combination of therapeutical modalities is considered particularly more beneficial in APD patients than a single modality. Treatment modalities should consider linguistic and cognitive processes (top-down), e.g., metacognitive knowledge of learning strategies or vocabulary expansion, but also address underlying auditory deficits (bottom-up). Almost 50% of children with APD also have a language development disorder requiring treatment and/or dyslexia. Therefore, each therapeutic intervention for a child with APD must be individually adapted according to the diagnosed impairments. Musical training can improve phonologic and reading abilities. Changes and adaptations in the classroom are helpful to support the weak auditory system of children with APD. Architectural planning of classrooms can be a means of ensuring that direct sound is masked by as little diffuse sound as possible. For example, acoustic ceiling tiles are suitable for reducing reverberant and diffuse sound.

A influência da função executiva nas habilidades de consciência fonológica em escolares do 2º ano

O objetivo do estudo é analisar a influência da função executiva no desempenho de tarefas de habilidades de consciência fonológica de crianças que cursam a segunda série do Ensino Fundamental de duas escolas da rede pública municipal. Participaram do estudo 18 crianças com idade de 7 anos de ambos os gêneros, matriculadas na segunda série do ensino fundamental de escola pública. Foram realizadas avalições de funções executivas e consciência fonológica. Empregou-se a estatística Correlação de Pearson e teste Exato de Fischer, com nível de significância p< 0.05. Os resultados não indicam a existência de correlação positiva entre as variáveis. Além de não haver diferença estatística para nenhuma das variáveis em relação ao gênero. O estudo pode analisar que a função executiva não parece ser uma variável que, isoladamente, atua nas habilidades de consciência fonológica para a faixa escolar estudada.

Иноязычная фонологическая способность младшего школьника как объект овладения в начальном иноязычном образовании

The article deals with the foreign language phonological ability as a methodological phenomenon in teaching a foreign language in primary school age. The concepts of «phonemic hearing», «phonetic hearing», «phonological ability» are analyzed. The article describes the structural components of a foreign language phonological ability and its importance for developing foreign language speech abilities in primary school children.

Prediction of reading and writing difficulties of first graders using dyslexia risk questionnaire (DRQ) in preschool age


 This article examines relationships between the scores of Dyslexia Risk Questionnaire (DRQ) in preschool age and the abilities, necessary for acquisition of reading and writing skills, as well as reading and writing skills in the 1st Grade. The results of the study showed that the scores of Dyslexia Risk Questionnaire (DRQ), completed by pre-primary teachers and parents of children attending pre-primary group, are related to prognostic indicators of reading and writing difficulties (phonological abilities: rapid naming, phonological awareness, short-term auditory memory; vocabulary; visual-motor skills), as well as to 1st graders’ reading skills and their reading and writing ratings provided by parents and teachers.

Skrining Kemampuan Phonological Awareness Anak Pra Sekolah

Background. In the learning process at school, especially in pre-school education, phonological ability is the entrance for children in mastery of language. In Indonesia, research that focuses on phonological abilities in pre-school children is still very limited. Objective. This study aims to determine the profile of pre-school children's phonological awareness abilities. Method. Participants were recruited from the Surakarta ABA Thoyibah Kindergarten with a total of 27 class B children to participate in this study. Screening is given to participants. The screening results will reflect the profile of children's phonological awareness abilities. Results. There are five items that can be used to screen pre-school children's phonological awareness skills: rhyme, syllable blending, initial phoneme identification, medial phoneme identification, and final phoneme identification. The results of the internal validation analysis of phonological awareness subtest were as follows: rhyme 0.684, syllable blending 0.772, initial phoneme identification 0.880, medial phoneme identification 0.862, and final phoneme identification 0.735. Conclusion. The value of internal validity or the correlation between items in phonological awareness screening is good because all items correlated have a correlation with a low probability value.

Estimasi Proporsi Kesalahan Fonologi Pada Anak Pendidikan Anak Usia Dini (PAUD) Usia 3-5 Tahun Di Surakarta

Background : Language acquisition skills talk to a child is most important because it is closely related to the phonology ability and relates to the ability of semantic and syntax acquisition. Children who experience Keretlambatan speaking language are at risk of learning difficulties, difficulty in reading and writing and will lead to less thorough academic achievement, this can continue to be young. Thus, the need for early detection of the phonological ability will be seen as a result of the estimated proportion of the phonological errors in the child. Method: This research uses the survey method. Research location in PAUD Al-Kautsar and PAUD Budi Karya Mojosongo Surakarta. With samples of PAUD children aged 3-5 years, 45 children with independent variables are phonological errors and their variable dependencies are phonological errors, with technical Purposive sampling. The technique of collecting observation data with articulated observation sheet with a word-level image. Results: That there are 16 children or 34.04% of 47 samples with an estimated proportion of 20,50 < π < 47,59 of PAUD Children at the age of 3-5 who have phonological pronunciation errors.That PAUD children at the age of 3-5 who had the misspelling of phonology of female sex, more percentage of his phonological error, which is as much as 9 children (56,25%) With an estimate of the proportion of 42.07 < π < 70.43 compared to boys, as many as 7 children (43,75%) With an estimate 29.57 < π < 57.93. Conclusion: There are phonological errors in children aged 3-5 years old, but based on his/her age is still in the process of phoneologically (Phonological Prosesses).

Relationship between temporal processing and phonological awareness in children with speech sound disorders

ABSTRACTTemporal processing ability contributes to the identification of small phonetic elements that is important for speech perception. Difficulty in these interferes with normal speech perception and phoneme recognition. The present study aimed to assess the temporal and phonological processing abilities in children with speech sound disorders (SSD). Temporal processing and phonological skills were evaluated in 32 participants in the age range of 6–10 years, equally divided into two groups. Group I included typically developing children, and Group II included children with SSD. Gap detection test and duration pattern test were used to assess temporal processing abilities, and phonological sensitivity training kit in Kannada (PhoST-K) assessed phonological processing abilities. The results showed that there was a significant difference in temporal and phonological processing between the two groups of children. A significant correlation between gap detection ability and deletion tasks and between duration pattern ability and oddity tasks was obtained. Based on the results, it is recommended to assess the temporal process pertinent to central auditory processing in children with SSD, as a close relationship between temporal processing abilities and phonological awareness exists.

The effect of phonological ability on fluently reading in toddler

The effect of phonological ability on fluently reading in toddler

Behavioral and Neural Correlates of Auditory n-Back Task in Adults With and Without Stuttering.

Purpose Adults with stuttering (AWS) exhibit compromised phonological working memory abilities, poor central auditory processing, and impaired auditory processing especially during overt speech production tasks. However, these tasks are sensitive to language disturbances already found in them. Thus, in this study, monosyllables were used ruling out the language effects, and auditory working memory ability was evaluated in AWS using the n-back task. In specific, the auditory sensory input of the working memory mechanism was evaluated. Method Thirty-two participants, 16 each of AWS and adults with no stuttering (AWNS), performed behavioral auditory 1-back and 2-back tasks. The long latency responses were also recorded during no-back and 2-back conditions from 64 electrode sites. Results Results revealed no significant differences between the groups in any of the behavioral parameters such as reaction time, accuracy, false alarm rate, or d'. N1 amplitude modulation was noted in AWNS, which was absent in AWS. The segmentation analysis showed a left hemisphere-oriented topographical distribution in the N2 region in AWS irrespective of conditions, whereas the scalp topography was right hemisphere-oriented with the involvement of parietal channels in AWNS. The timing differences existed between AWS and AWNS in the intervals that a topographical distribution lasted in all throughout the time window of analysis. Conclusion The results suggest altered neural pathway and hemispheric differences during auditory working memory tasks in AWS.

Diagnosis of dyslexic disorders and identification of factors associated with reading learning disabilities within the Moroccan context

Reading acquisition disorders constitute the main problem in children's learning. in Morocco, epidemiological data are very rare. Research, mainly in the English language, concerns either the sociological or the cognitive field. Few studies, among them not one in Arabic, have explored the link relating to social and cognitive factors. The purpose of our work is to study and analyze the cognitive and social variables related to different reading skills among Moroccan pupils in primary and secondary public schools. From a sample of 754 learners (388 boys and 366 girls) ranging in age from 9 to 15 years with an average of 11.59 years, the diagnostic tests identified 145 students with deficient skills "Bad readers (BR)," 128 suspected of being in difficulty classified as « intermediate level (IL) » and a group of 481 children as good readers ( GR). Statistical analyses have shown that the first two groups (BR and IL) represent 24% in the favoured areas compared to 43% in the disadvantaged. The analysis of scores and the nature of the errors made on various reading tests show that 41 students, or 5.43% of our sample, present a dyslexia profile. 13 (1.72%) of whom have very severe difficulties. The phonological aptitudes (Rapid automatized naming, phonological short-time memory and especially phonological awareness) mainly reflect the level of reading. These phonological abilities are highly influenced by early attendance of preschool and by the degree of exposure to written language at home. These data, which are unique in Morocco, are consistent to that of the published subject literature. They make it possible to plan preventive actions by generalizing pre-school teaching, particularly in precarious environments. These actions should be based on playful exercises aimed at improving phonological abilities at an early age, while exploiting the brain sensitivity to reading at that age. Phonological awareness and rapid naming are the most implicated factors in the disparity of reading skills. These abilities are highly influenced by the integration of preschool at a very early age and by the degree of exposure to written language activities. Therefore, there is a need to plan preventive actions, based on playful exercises, aiming to improve phonological skills from the pre-school period

Audiovisual speech segmentation in post-stroke aphasia: a pilot study

ABSTRACTBackground: Stroke may cause sentence comprehension disorders. Speech segmentation, i.e. the ability to detect word boundaries while listening to continuous speech, is an initial step allowing the successful identification of words and the accurate understanding of meaning within sentences. It has received little attention in people with post-stroke aphasia (PWA).Objectives: Our goal was to study speech segmentation in PWA and examine the potential benefit of seeing the speakers’ articulatory gestures while segmenting sentences.Methods: Fourteen PWA and twelve healthy controls participated in this pilot study. Performance was measured with a word-monitoring task. In the auditory-only modality, participants were presented with auditory-only stimuli while in the audiovisual modality, visual speech cues (i.e. speaker’s articulatory gestures) accompanied the auditory input. The proportion of correct responses was calculated for each participant and each modality. Visual enhancement was then calculated in order to estimate the potential benefit of seeing the speaker’s articulatory gestures.Results: Both in auditory-only and audiovisual modalities, PWA performed significantly less well than controls, who had 100% correct performance in both modalities. The performance of PWA was correlated with their phonological ability. Six PWA used the visual cues. Group level analysis performed on PWA did not show any reliable difference between the auditory-only and audiovisual modalities (median of visual enhancement = 7% [Q1 − Q3: −5 − 39]).Conclusion: Our findings show that speech segmentation disorder may exist in PWA. This points to the importance of assessing and training speech segmentation after stroke. Further studies should investigate the characteristics of PWA who use visual speech cues during sentence processing.

Assessment of school readiness of children and factors associated with risk of inadequate school readiness in Ujjain, India: an observational study

ObjectiveSchool readiness is a condition or state indicating that the child is ready to learn in a formal educational set-up. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence...

Efecto de un programa de estimulación de la conciencia fonológica en niños preescolares: sensibilidad a la rima y a la segmentación

Objetivo: La conciencia fonológica es una habilidad metalingüística que permite acceder a la estructura de la lengua oral mediante el reconocimiento y la manipulación de los elementos fonológicos del habla. Diversos estudios han sustentado la importancia de estimular las habilidades de la conciencia fonológica en niños preescolares, con el fin de mejorar la adquisición de la habilidad lectora. Sin embargo, los programas de estimulación reportados en la literatura han sido creados para niños en etapa escolar. El objetivo del presente estudio es evaluar la utilidad del programa de estimulación de la sensibilidad a la rima y a la segmentación en niños de preescolar.
 Método: En este estudio participaron 69 niños entre 3 y 4 años de edad de un jardín infantil de la ciudad de Barranquilla, quienes fueron divididos aleatoriamente en tres grupos (dos de estimulación y uno de lista de espera). El programa de estimulación fue realizado en sesiones grupales durante una hora y media, dos veces por semana durante nueve meses.
 Resultados: Los grupos que recibieron la estimulación aumentaron su habilidad para la segmentación, incluso una vez retirada la estimulación.
 Conclusiones: La utilidad del programa de estimulación resalta la importancia de incluir la estimulación de las habilidades de conciencia fonológica en el contexto educativo.

Preventing a summer slide in reading – the effects of a summer school

ABSTRACTResearchers have found that summer reading loss contributes to the reading achievement gap between low and high socioeconomic (SES) children. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of a 3-week summer intervention in addressing this slide for 36 low SES children compared with another 36 children in a matched control group from one New Zealand school. The program involved one-to-one tutoring with explicit phonics instruction, high-frequency word-reading practice and application of these skills in reading age-appropriate texts. Results showed that although the mean reading comprehension slide was 5.8 months for both groups, the summer school group had higher word reading scores than the control group. The summer school participants showed improvements in phonological recoding ability, word reading, spelling and passage reading accuracy. These were not sufficient to stop the reading comprehension slide, but the program did make inroads. With further emphasis on comprehension strategies, the achievement gap may narrow.

Individual differences in subphonemic sensitivity and phonological skills.

Many studies have established a link between phonological abilities (indexed by phonological awareness and phonological memory tasks) and typical and atypical reading development. Individuals who perform poorly on phonological assessments have been mostly assumed to have underspecified (or "fuzzy") phonological representations, with typical phonemic categories, but with greater category overlap due to imprecise encoding. An alternative posits that poor readers have overspecified phonological representations, with speech sounds perceived allophonically (phonetically distinct variants of a single phonemic category). On both accounts, mismatch between phonological categories and orthography leads to reading difficulty. Here, we consider the implications of these accounts for online speech processing. We used eye tracking and an individual differences approach to assess sensitivity to subphonemic detail in a community sample of young adults with a wide range of reading-related skills. Subphonemic sensitivity inversely correlated with meta-phonological task performance, consistent with overspecification.

Effects of Home Language, Oral Language Skills, and Cross-Linguistic Phonological Abilities on Whole-Word Proximity in Spanish-English-Speaking Children.

Purpose This study examined language use and language ability factors that predict phonological whole-word proximity in young Spanish-English-speaking children. Method Participants were 199 Latino children aged 3;0-6;6 (years;months) and their mothers. Children's speech sound production in English and Spanish was assessed using the Bilingual Phonological Assessment ( Miccio & Hammer, 2006 ). Vocabulary and story retell abilities were assessed using the Woodcock-Muñoz Language Survey-Revised ( Woodcock, Muñoz-Sandoval, Ruef, & Alvarado, 2005 ), and information regarding the children's exposure to and use of English and Spanish was collected by means of a parent survey. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to determine the degree to which exposure to and use of each language in the home, oral language abilities, and phonological proficiency as measured by the proportion of whole-word proximity (PWP; Ingram, 2002 ) in the other language were able to predict the PWP scores in English and Spanish. Results A large portion of the variance in English and Spanish PWP scores ( R 2 = .66 and .51, respectively) was predicted by the language children use when communicating with their mothers, children's vocabulary scores, and children's PWP scores in the other language. Conclusion Language use, vocabulary, and phonological whole-word proximity in the other language are significant factors in predicting bilingual children's whole-word proximity in English and Spanish. Children's phonological abilities in one language are highly predictive of those same abilities in the other, suggesting underlying shared phonological skills across languages.

How Does a Metalinguistic Phonological Intervention Impact the Reading Achievement and Language of African American Boys?

Researchers consistently find a correlation between low literacy levels and high school dropout rates, expulsion, reading achievement, and failing grades for African American males. Low literacy achievement in African American males may result from multiple factors, including dialectic linguistic differences and/or phonological awareness abilities. Phonological deficits are consistently associated with dyslexia. This article documents results from a metacognitive flexibility-based phonological intervention designed to mitigate the effects of dialect differences and phonological awareness among African American boys. Based on their scaled scores on the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing–Second Edition Elision subtest, we placed participants in 2 different groups: low phonological awareness (n = 13) and average phonological awareness (n = 17). The 4-week intervention included manipulative phonemic procedures targeting final consonant patterns with an emphasis on a metacognitive understanding of phonological differences between African American English and academic English. We analyzed pre- and posttest data on resulting reading achievement, phonological awareness, and dialect variation using multivariate analysis of variance/multivariate analysis of covariance. We used hierarchical regression to analyze the prediction of reading achievement scores. The findings of this study suggest several recommendations for teachers to increase phonological awareness abilities among students who are at risk for reading difficulties. Teachers can also implement explicit instruction combining phonemic manipulation and verbal scaffolding related to a metacognitive understanding of the phonological differences between African American English and academic English.

Phonological Abilities in Persian Speaking Preschool Children with Stuttering and Fluent Peers.

Speech sound production is poorer in stutterers than normally fluent peers. This study was performed to compare speech sound production abilities in Persian speaking children with developmental stuttering. Overall, 34 children with stuttering and 60 children without stuttering aged from 3 to 6 yr old were enrolled from Ahvaz City, Khuzestan Province, southern Iran in 2016. The phonetic information test was used to assess speech sound production in this study and 30-minute mother-child conversations were utilized for calculation of Percentage Consonant Correct. Phonological abilities of these two groups were compared against each other and a correlation between stuttering severity and speech sound articulation was calculated. There was significant difference between children with stuttering and normal peers for articulation error total percentage but not significant difference was found for percentage consonant correct (P=0.16). Moreover, no significant correlation between stuttering severity and speech sound production in this population was found. No association seems to exist between stuttering severity and speech sound production abilities in this population. This study may lead to the notion that there was significant difference between the two groups in speech sound production assessment.