Phonological Awareness Skills In Children Research Articles

Effect of music integrated phonological awareness program on preschool cochlear implant users

ObjectivesChildren with cochlear implants exhibit lower phonological awareness and sound discrimination skills compared to their normal-hearing peers. However, music training has been shown to have a positive effect on speech discrimination and awareness skills. MethodsOur study included 23 cochlear implant users and 23 normal hearing participants aged 5–6 years with language skills. The aim was to observe the effect of a music-integrated phonological awareness program on cochlear implant users and to compare the phonological awareness skills of children with cochlear implants before and after online training with their normal hearing peers. ResultsResults showed that the trained study group scored higher on the Scale of Early Childhood Phonological Awareness (PASECP) after training than the control group (p < 0.05). In addition, SMRT scores increased between before and after training in the study group, and Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitudes increased and latencies decreased as a result of training (p < 0.05). ConclusionsThe study suggests that phonological awareness training integrated with music can effectively improve the phonological awareness skills of children with cochlear implants and has the potential to enable them to achieve phonological awareness levels similar to or even better than their normal hearing peers.

Intergenerational longitudinal associations between parental reading/musical traits, infants' auditory processing, and later phonological awareness skills.

The intergenerational transmission of language/reading skills has been demonstrated by evidence reporting that parental literacy abilities contribute to the prediction of their offspring's language and reading skills. According to the "Intergenerational Multiple Deficit Model," literacy abilities of both parents are viewed as indicators of offspring's liability for literacy difficulties, since parents provide offspring with genetic and environmental endowment. Recently, studies focusing on the heritability of musical traits reached similar conclusions. The "Musical Abilities, Pleiotropy, Language, and Environment (MAPLE)" framework proposed that language/reading and musical traits share a common genetic architecture, and such shared components have an influence on the heritable neural underpinnings of basic-level skills underlying musical and language traits. Here, we investigate the intergenerational transmission of parental musical and language-related (reading) abilities on their offspring's neural response to a basic auditory stimulation (neural intermediate phenotype) and later phonological awareness skills, including in this complex association pattern the mediating effect of home environment. One-hundred and seventy-six families were involved in this study. Through self-report questionnaires we assessed parental reading abilities and musicality, as well as home literacy and musical environment. Offspring were involved in a longitudinal study: auditory processing was measured at 6 months of age by means of a Rapid Auditory Processing electrophysiological paradigm, and phonological awareness was assessed behaviorally at 5 years of age. Results reveal significant correlations between parents' reading skills and musical traits. Intergenerational associations were investigated through mediation analyses using structural equation modeling. For reading traits, the results revealed that paternal reading was indirectly associated with children's phonological awareness skills via their electrophysiological MisMatch Response at 6 months, while maternal reading was directly associated with children's phonological awareness. For musical traits, we found again that paternal musicality, rather than maternal characteristics, was associated with children's phonological phenotypes: in this case, the association was mediated by musical environment. These results provide some insight about the intergenerational pathways linking parental reading and musical traits, neural underpinnings of infants' auditory processing and later phonological awareness skills. Besides shedding light on possible intergenerational transmission mechanisms, this study may open up new perspectives for early intervention based on environmental enrichment.

Links between musical beat perception and phonological skills for autistic children

ABSTRACT Exploring non-linguistic predictors of phonological awareness, such as musical beat perception, is valuable for children who present with language difficulties and diverse support needs. Studies on the musical abilities of children on the autism spectrum show that they have average or above-average musical production and auditory processing abilities. This study aimed to explore the relationship between musical beat perception and phonological awareness skills of children on the autism spectrum with a wide range of cognitive abilities. A total of 21 autistic children between the ages of 6 to 11 years old (M = 8.9, SD = 1.5) with full scale IQs ranging from 52 to 105 (M = 74, SD = 16) completed a beat perception and a phonological awareness task. Results revealed that phonological awareness and beat perception are positively correlated for children on the autism spectrum. Findings lend support to the potential use of beat and rhythm perception as a screening tool for early literacy skills, specifically for phonological awareness, for children with diverse support needs as an alternative to traditional verbal tasks that tend to underestimate the potential of children on the autism spectrum.

Implementing Speech Perception and Phonological Awareness Intervention for Children With Speech Sound Disorders.

Children with speech sound disorders have more difficulties producing speech sounds accurately than same-age peers. In addition, they often have difficulties with speech perception, and weaker phonological awareness skills than their peers and are at risk for negative long-term academic and socio-emotional outcomes. In this tutorial, we describe ways in which clinicians can target speech perception and/or phonological awareness within the context of speech production practice. First, we briefly describe the speech perception and phonological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders and summarize previous intervention studies that targeted speech production and speech perception and/or phonological awareness skills. Next, we demonstrate how clinicians may incorporate speech perception and phonological awareness intervention in speech therapy through example instructional objectives and activities and include a case study. Incorporating speech perception and phonological awareness into speech production intervention may improve speech and literacy outcomes for children with speech sound disorders.

Relações entre idade linguística e consciência fonológica de crianças com transtorno do desenvolvimento da linguagem

ABSTRACT Purpose: to verify whether there is a relation between linguistic age and performance in phonological awareness of children presented with developmental language disorder. Methods: a retrospective study comprising 53 children with developmental language disorder aged between 4 and 7 years old. Their language disorder diagnosis followed the inclusion criteria internationally described and Brazilian standardized tests for language assessment were used. All children underwent phonological awareness and linguistic skills assessment via standardized tests and all data went through statistical analysis. For correlation analysis, the p-value was performed through the Pearson’s test. In the regression analysis the models used expressive and receptive linguistic age as independent variables and the performance in phonological awareness as a dependent variable (p=0,036* and p= 0,048*). Results: the data indicated a strong correlation between language age and phonological awareness skills in children with language developmental disorder. A strong correlation between syllabic awareness and linguistic age was found as well. In addition, phonemic awareness was correlated to their chronological age. All correlation tests were confirmed by regression analysis. Conclusion: the data indicated a strong correlation between linguistic age and phonological awareness in children with developmental language disorders. These findings raise discussion regarding phonemic skills in children under this condition and their literacy process.

Phonological Awareness in Students With Reading Difficulties at Elementary School

Phonological awareness is an essential skill for children to learn to read. Most children with reading difficulties have problems with it. This article was written to describe phonological awareness skills in children with reading difficulties with a descriptive method. There were 31 students with reading difficulties were tested informally. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive techniques and tabulation will define the result of their test. The results showed that there were 25 (81percent) students have problems with phonological awareness. It is indicated almost all students with reading difficulties cannot read with phonological awareness un-mastery. This theme opens up opportunities for further research on phonological awareness of language in primary schools given its importance in teaching reading in schools.

Phonological Awareness Skills in Children With Early and Late Cochlear Implantation: Effects of Task and Phonological Unit.

Purpose Phonological awareness (PA) skills are critical for spoken language acquisition and literacy. PA manifests in various skills that can be identified based on task performance and speech sound unit size. This study compared the PA skills of children with early cochlear implantation (E-CI), children with late cochlear implantation (L-CI), and children with typical hearing (TH) in relation to task and phonological unit. It also attempted to identify the significant predictors of PA skills in each CI and TH group. Method Twenty children with E-CI, 20 children with L-CI, and 20 children with TH participated in this study. PA skills were assessed using elision, blending, and segmenting tasks at both the syllabic and phonemic levels. Results The E-CI and L-CI groups performed significantly less well than the TH group on the elision and blending tasks at the syllabic level. However, the E-CI group performed at a similar level as the TH group in the segmenting tasks at both the syllabic and phonemic levels. The regression analysis identified age at implantation and receptive vocabulary scores as significant predictors of PA skills in children with CIs. Conclusions Although all the children with CIs had age-appropriate receptive vocabulary skills, the PA skills of both the E-CI and L-CI groups tended to lag behind those of the TH group in the elision and blending tasks at the syllabic level. Age at implantation and receptive vocabulary skills affected the development of PA skills in children with CIs.

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.

Children With Reading Difficulty Rely on Unimodal Neural Processing for Phonemic Awareness.

Phonological awareness skills in children with reading difficulty (RD) may reflect impaired automatic integration of orthographic and phonological representations. However, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms involved in phonological awareness for children with RD. Eighteen children with RD, ages 9–13, participated in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study designed to assess the relationship of two constructs of phonological awareness, phoneme synthesis, and phoneme analysis, with crossmodal rhyme judgment. Participants completed a rhyme judgment task presented in two modality conditions; unimodal auditory only and crossmodal audiovisual. Measures of phonological awareness were correlated with unimodal, but not crossmodal, lexical processing. Moreover, these relationships were found only in unisensory brain regions, and not in multisensory brain areas. The results of this study suggest that children with RD rely on unimodal representations and unisensory brain areas, and provide insight into the role of phonemic awareness in mapping between auditory and visual modalities during literacy acquisition.

Spelling errors and phonological awareness skills in children with typical and atypical phonological development.

To verify and correlate the spelling errors present in the written productions to the performance in phonological awareness skills of children in different school years, with typical and atypical phonological development. The sample consisted of 50 children divided into two groups: with typical phonological development (TPD) and with atypical phonological development (APD); students from the early years (1st to 5th grades) of schooling and ages between 6:0 and 10:0 years old. The children were submitted to speech-language and audiological evaluations. Data were tabulated and statistical analyzes were performed using the Spearman Correlation Coefficient. In relation to the number of spelling errors in writing, these were similar in the TPD and APD groups, except for the contextual-arbitrary errors that were greater for the APD. Still, it was observed that the number of written spelling errors decreased with the increase in schooling. Concerning the average performance in phonological awareness, the TPD performed better than the APD in syllabic and phonemic awareness. The children of 4th and 5th grades presented better performance in phonological awareness than those in grades 1st to 3rd. The correlation was inversely proportional between the phonological awareness performance and the number of spelling errors (those that alter the syllabic structure) for both groups, demonstrating that the more errors of this type, the lower the performance in syllabic, phonemic and total phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness emergence in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder

Background and aims Phonological awareness begins to develop during the preschool years and is a primary factor underlying later reading abilities. Previous research has found mixed results on the phonological awareness skills of children with autism spectrum disorders. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to add to our understanding of phonological awareness in children with autism spectrum disorder by investigating residualized gains in phonological awareness skills over an academic year. Methods A total of 125 preschool (4- to 5-years old) children including 27 children with autism spectrum disorder, 28 children with language impairment, and 70 typically developing children were the focus of the present study. Participants in the current study represent a subset of participants from a larger study titled, Sit Together and Read. Children completed direct assessments in the beginning (fall) and end of school year (spring) on phonological awareness using the Test of Preschool Early Literacy. Results A one-way ANOVA compared the phonological awareness skills tasks (syllable/onset-rime, blending/elision, receptive/expressive) in the fall and the spring for each of the three groups (children with autism spectrum disorder, children with language impairment, children who are typically developing). In the fall and the spring, all of the analyses were found to be statistically significant. A Tukey HSD further indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder had significantly lower scores on all of the tasks at both time points compared to the typically developing peers. Children with autism spectrum disorder seem to make gains in phonological awareness tasks similarly to their typically developing peers for most of the phonological awareness tasks. Results from the final regression models indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder made gains similar to those of their typically developing peers for most phonological awareness tasks and that language skills predicted residualized gain for syllable, elision, and receptive tasks, as well as the total score when controlling for condition, IQ, and group status. Social skills were not a significant predictor for any of the tasks. Conclusions Three main findings emerged: (a) phonological awareness skills seem to be a deficit for children with autism spectrum disorder, (b) in general, autism status does not predict residualized gain in phonological awareness skills, and (c) oral language is a significant predictor of residualized gain in phonological awareness skills. Implication Early childhood educators should focus on providing high-quality instruction on phonological awareness for children with autism spectrum disorder and researchers should focus on investigating the effectiveness of phonological awareness interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder.

The Effectiveness of Educational Intervention of Phonological Awareness on the Increase of Phonological Awareness among the Persian-Speaking Students with Cochlear Implant in First Grade of Primary Schools in Ahvaz City, Iran

Introduction : Deaf children have lost part of their language learning course due to the lack of auditory input, and in most cases, they will face with many problems in their language-learning growth. One aspects of the language is phonological awareness that can be seen as an introduction to the development of future reading; moreover, training in phonological awareness is effective on development of decoding skills. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of an educational intervention of phonological awareness, on the increase of phonological awareness among the Persian-speaking students with cochlear implant in first grade of primary schools in Ahvaz City, Iran. Materials and Methods : 28 Persian-speaking children with cochlear implant were randomly assigned to equal groups of experimental and control. The students’ parents signed the formal consent form; then, the phonological awareness skill test was administered in both groups. The experimental group received the phonological awareness training, and the phonological awareness skill test was administered again in both groups. Results : After the intervention, the mean score of phonological awareness skill increased significantly in experimental group (P = 0.001). Moreover, the mean score of each phonological awareness subskill was significantly more increased in the experimental group compared to the control group (P < 0.050 for all). The intervention was most effective on segmentation skill, and least effective on awareness of the rhyme. Conclusion : The results of the study showed that the proposed phonological training program improved phonological awareness skills in children with cochlear implant. Application of this program is recommended.

The Relationship Between Speech, Language, and Phonological Awareness in Preschool-Age Children With Developmental Disabilities.

A number of intrinsic factors, including expressive speech skills, have been suggested to place children with developmental disabilities at risk for limited development of reading skills. This study examines the relationship between these factors, speech ability, and children's phonological awareness skills. A nonexperimental study design was used to examine the relationship between intrinsic skills of speech, language, print, and letter-sound knowledge to phonological awareness in 42 children with developmental disabilities between the ages of 48 and 69 months. Hierarchical multiple regression was done to determine if speech ability accounted for a unique amount of variance in phonological awareness skill beyond what would be expected by developmental skills inclusive of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. A range of skill in all areas of direct assessment was found. Children with limited speech were found to have emerging skills in print knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and phonological awareness. Speech ability did not predict a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness beyond what would be expected by developmental skills of receptive language and print and letter-sound knowledge. Children with limited speech ability were found to have receptive language and letter-sound knowledge that supported the development of phonological awareness skills. This study provides implications for practitioners and researchers concerning the factors related to early reading development in children with limited speech ability and developmental disabilities.

Feasibility of a Supplemental Phonological Awareness Intervention via Telepractice for Children with Hearing Loss: A Preliminary Study.

The goal of the current study was to examine the feasibility of a telepractice intervention to improve phonological awareness skills in children with hearing loss as compared to a conventional in-person intervention. Twenty children with hearing loss participated in this study. Two groups of ten children each received a supplemental phonological awareness intervention either via telepractice or an in-person service delivery model. Within each of the two groups, five children were enrolled in preschool or kindergarten and five children were enrolled in first or second grade. The two groups of children demonstrated similar phonological awareness, non-verbal IQ, and vocabulary skills during pre-tests. After a 12-week intervention children with hearing loss showed improved phonological awareness skills as measured by a standardized post-test. No significant differences were found between the performance of the telepractice group and in-person group. Nor was a significant interaction found between the two age groups (PreK/K vs. 1st /2nd grade) and the two types of service delivery models (in-person vs. telepractice). The results suggest that a telepractice service delivery model is feasible for young children with hearing loss, and that telepractice may be as effective as in-person intervention in improving phonological awareness skills.

Development of phonological awareness in Down syndrome: A meta-analysis and empirical study.

Phonological awareness (PA) is the knowledge and understanding of the sound structure of language and is believed to be an important skill for the development of reading. This study explored PA skills in children with Down syndrome and matched typically developing (TD) controls using a dual approach: a meta-analysis of the existing international literature and a longitudinal empirical study. The results from both the meta-analysis and the empirical study showed that the children with Down syndrome initially had weaker PA skills compared to the controls; in particular, the awareness of rhyme was delayed. The longitudinal empirical data indicated that, as a result of formal education, the children with Down syndrome exhibited greater improvement on all PA measures compared with the controls who had not yet entered school. The results reach significance for rhyme awareness. With respect to dimensionality, the performance of the children with Down syndrome loaded on 1 factor, whereas the performance of the younger TD controls was multidimensional. In sum, these findings underline the need for studies that compare interventions designed especially to stimulate development of PA in this group of children and to provide insight into the underlying causes of the developmental profile of children with Down syndrome.

Investigating Phonological Awareness in Persian-Speaking Children With Phonological Disorders

Background: In terms of error patterns, children with phonological disorders (PD) are a heterogeneous population. These children are at risk for phonological awareness (PA) deficits. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate phonological awareness in Persian-speaking children with phonological disorders. Patients and Methods: Thirty-six children with PD aged 5 - 6 years were selected by a convenience sampling method during 12 months. Children with PD were divided into three groups according to their error patterns. Fourteen normally developing (ND) children were selected as the control group. In order to equalize socioeconomic status, ND children were similar to the PD groups based on age, residential area, and mothers’ educational attainments. Language, speech sound production, oro-motor, and PA skills were investigated. Intra-syllabic and phonological awareness (PA) were compared to investigate PA skills in the four groups. Relation between percent consonant correct (PCC) and PA was also investigated in the four groups. Fourteen children with phonological delay, 12 children with consistent atypical phonological disorders (CAP), and 10 children with inconsistent phonological disorders (ICP) formed the PD groups. Results: The CAP group showed significant difference with the ND group in alliteration (P = 0.001), rhyme (P = 0.001), identification of words with the same initial phoneme (P = 0.002), and identification of words with the same final phoneme (P = 0.001) [except blending phonemes (P = 0.504)]. Though performing more poorly, the delayed group did not show significant difference with ND group (P > 0.05). The ICP and ND groups did not show significant difference in PA except in identifying words with the same final phoneme (P = 0.008). The relation between PCC and PA was observed only in the CAP group (P = 0.021). Conclusions: The results suggested that PA skills in children with phonological disorders are affected by error type. We also found the type of errors that can play a more effective role in PA investigations as compared to PCC. The results also showed that children with CAP require special attention.

Small Groups, Big Gains: Efficacy of a Tier 2 Phonological Awareness Intervention With Preschoolers With Early Literacy Deficits

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a phonological awareness (PA) intervention, designed for Tier 2 instruction in a Response to Intervention (RTI) model, delivered to small groups of preschoolers. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention on low-income preschool children's PA skills. A trained interventionist delivered small group sessions 3 to 4 days a week and ensured children received frequent opportunities to respond and contingent feedback. Participants received 28 to 36 lessons that lasted about 10 min each and focused on PA and alphabet knowledge. Initiation of intervention was staggered across 3 triads, and 7 children completed the study. The intervention produced consistent gains on weekly progress monitoring assessments of the primary outcome measure for first sound identification (First Sound Fluency). Most children also demonstrated gains on other measures of PA and alphabet knowledge. Results provide support for the application of a small group intervention consistent with an RTI framework and document the potential benefits of the intervention to learners who need early literacy instruction beyond the core curriculum.

Positive effects of naturalistic instruction on phonological awareness skills of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Hansen, B. D., Wadsworth, J. P., Roberts, M. R., & Poole, T. N. (2014). Effects of naturalistic instruction on phonological awareness skills of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 35, 2790–2801.Source of funding and disclosure of interests: The original authors of this study did not report any source of funding nor did they disclose any interests or declare any conflicts of interest.

Effects of naturalistic instruction on phonological awareness skills of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

This study evaluated the effects of an intervention for teaching phonological awareness skills to kindergarten-age children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The intervention employed a combined multiple treatment and multiple baseline design, embedded in playtime and implemented under naturally occurring conditions. Six children in a special education kindergarten class were taught syllable segmentation, first sound identification, and phoneme segmenting. Results indicated that all children made gains on each skill. Results are discussed in light of current research on phonological awareness intervention for young children with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Phonological encoding of young children who stutter

PurposeSeveral empirical studies suggest that children who stutter, when compared to typically fluent peers, demonstrate relatively subtle, yet robust differences in phonological encoding. Phonological encoding can be measured through the use of tasks that reflect the underlying mechanisms of phonological processing, such as phonological awareness. This study investigated the phonological encoding abilities of five- and six-year old children who stutter. MethodsYoung children who stutter were paired according to language ability, maternal education, and sex to their typically fluent peers. Participants completed multiple measures of phonological awareness abilities (i.e., sound matching, phoneme blending, elision), as well as measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary and articulation. ResultsYoung children who stutter performed significantly less well than nonstuttering peers on tasks of elision and sound blending. No between-group differences were found in sound matching abilities or in any of the background language measures. ConclusionsResults suggest that young children who stutter have subtle, yet robust, linguistic differences in certain aspects of phonological encoding that may contribute to an unstable language planning system in young children who stutter.Educational Objectives: The reader will be able to: (a) describe how phonological awareness can inform our understanding of phonological encoding; (b) summarize the findings of previously published studies that examined some aspects of phonological awareness in children who do and do not stutter; and (c) compare the results of the current study with other investigations of phonological awareness skills in children who stutter and their typically fluent peers.