Phonological Processing Skills Research Articles

Considerations for identifying subtypes of speech sound disorder.

Speech sound disorders (SSDs) in children are heterogeneous. Differentiating children with SSDs into distinct subtypes is important so that each child receives a treatment approach well suited to the particular difficulties they are experiencing. To study the distinct underlying processes that differentiate phonological processing, phonological planning or motor planning deficits. The literature on the nature of SSDs is reviewed to reveal diagnostic signs at the level of distal causes, proximal factors and surface characteristics. Subtypes of SSDs may be identified by linking the surface characteristics of the children's speech to underlying explanatory proximal factors. The proximal factors may be revealed by measures of speech perception skills, phonological memory and speech-motor control. The evidence suggests that consistent phonological disorder (CPD) can be identified by predictable patterns of speech error associated with speech perception errors. Inconsistent phonological disorder (IPD) is associated with a deficit in the selection and sequencing of phonemes, that is, revealed as within-word inconsistency and poor phonological memory. The motor planning deficit that is specific to childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) is revealed by transcoding errors on the syllable repetition task and an inability to produce [pətəkə] accurately and rapidly. Children with SSDs form a heterogeneous population. Surface characteristics overlap considerably among those with severe disorders, but certain signs are unique to particular subtypes. Careful attention to underlying causal factors will support the accurate diagnosis and selection of personalized treatment options. What is already known on the subject SSD in children are heterogenous, with numerous subtypes of primary SSD proposed. Diagnosing the specific subtype of SSD is important in order to assign the most efficacious treatment approach for each child. Identifying the distinct subtype for each child is difficult because the surface characteristics of certain subtypes overlap among categories (e.g., CPD or IPD; CAS). What this paper adds to the existing knowledge The diagnostic challenge might be eased by systematic attention to explanatory factors in relation to the surface characteristics, using specific tests for this purpose. Word identification tasks tap speech perception skills; repetition of short versus long strings of nonsense syllables permits observation of phonological memory and phonological planning skills; and standard maximum performance tests provide considerable information about speech motor control. What are the potential or actual clinical implications of this work? Children with SSDs should receive comprehensive assessments of their phonological processing, phonological planning and motor planning skills frequently, alongside examinations of their error patterns in connected speech. Such assessments will serve to identify the child's primary challenges currently and as they change over developmental time.

Amplitude rise time sensitivity in children with and without dyslexia: differential task effects and longitudinal relations to phonology and literacy.

The speech amplitude envelope carries important acoustic information required for speech intelligibility and contains sensory cues (amplitude rise times, ARTs) that play a key role in both sensory rhythm perception and neural speech encoding. Individual differences in children's sensitivity to ARTs have been related to the development of children's phonological processing skills across languages by the Temporal Sampling theory. Impaired processing of ARTs also characterises children with dyslexia. However, different ART tasks have been employed in different studies, in different languages, and at different ages. Here, we compare the sensitivity of three frequently used ART tasks (based on synthetic syllables, sine tones, and speech-shaped noise) in a longitudinal study of English-speaking children with and without dyslexia. Children's ability to discriminate rising frequency, duration, and intensity was also tested. ART discrimination in all 3 tasks was significantly inter-related, but different relations to phonology and literacy were found for different ART tasks at different ages. In particular, the often-used sine tone and speech-shaped noise ART tasks showed greater sensitivity in older children, while the synthetic syllable task (/ba/ rise) showed greater sensitivity in younger children. Sensitivity to rising frequency was also related to phonology and literacy across ages. The data are interpreted with respect to the Temporal Sampling theory of developmental dyslexia.

Learning to Read in an Intermediate Depth Orthography: The Longitudinal Role of Grapheme Sounding on Different Types of Reading Fluency.

Phonological processing skills, such as phonological awareness, are known predictors of reading acquisition in alphabetic languages with varying degrees of orthographic complexity. However, the role of multi-letter-sound knowledge, an important foundation for early reading development, in supporting reading fluency development remains to be determined. This study examined whether two core foundational skills, phonemic awareness and grapheme sounding, have a predictive role in reading fluency development in an intermediate-depth orthography. The participants were 62 children learning to read in European Portuguese, and they were longitudinally assessed on phonemic awareness, complex grapheme sounding, and reading fluency (decoding, word, and text) from Grade 2 to Grade 3. The results showed that grapheme sounding predicted reading fluency development controlled for nonverbal intelligence and vocabulary, short-term verbal memory, and phonemic awareness. Grapheme sounding plays a prominent role in predicting reading fluency outcomes, whereas phonemic awareness (both accuracy and time per correct item) did not contribute to any of the three types of reading fluency. The fact that grapheme-sounding predicted reading fluency is likely due to complex grapheme-phoneme correspondences being required to achieve proficient reading. These findings provide insights into the cognitive processes underlying reading development in intermediate-depth orthographies and have implications for early literacy instruction.

Phonological awareness mediates the relationship between DCDC2 and reading performance with home environment

Proficient reading requires critical phonological processing skill that interacts with both genetic and environmental factors. However, the precise nature of the relationships between phonological processing and genetic and environmental factors are poorly understood. We analyzed data from the Genes, Reading and Dyslexia (GRaD) Study on 1419 children ages 8–15 years from African-American and Hispanic-American family backgrounds living in North America. The analyses showed that phonological awareness mediated the relationship between DCDC2-READ1 and reading outcomes when parental education and socioeconomic status was low. The association between READ1 and reading performance is complex, whereby mediation by phonological awareness was significantly moderated by both parental education and socioeconomic status. These results show the importance of home environment and phonological skills when determining associations between READ1 and reading outcomes. This will be an important consideration in the development of genetic screening for risk of reading disability.

The Role of Second Language Reading Proficiency in Moderating Second Language Word Recognition

Drawing upon the division of labor between orthographic and phonological information, this study investigated whether and how L2 reading proficiency moderates learners’ reliance on phonological and orthographic information in retrieving word meanings. A total of 136 Chinese collegiate students who learned English as a foreign language (EFL) completed English reading proficiency tests and were divided into higher and lower reading proficiency groups using an extreme-group approach. Behavioral tasks were used to measure the participants’ sensitivity to and processing skills of orthographic and phonological information. The analysis showed that the reliance on phonological and orthographic information differed significantly across L2 reading proficiency groups: The higher reading proficiency group was sensitive to both phonological and orthographic information within words, while the lower reading proficiency group was only sensitive to orthographic information; only orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to the word meaning retrieval of individuals in the higher reading proficiency group, while phonological processing skills were the only predictor for the lower reading proficiency group. These results suggest that the use of phonological and orthographic information vary as a function of L2 learners’ English reading proficiency. Implications regarding the changing patterns of L1 influences and the language-universal and language-specific aspects of word recognition were discussed.

The Arabic-Phonological Processing Test (A-PPT): development, validity, and reliability

ABSTRACT This study introduces the Arabic-Phonological Processing Test (A-PPT) and conducts a thorough assessment of its validity and reliability. The A-PPT functions as a tool for evaluating three fundamental phonological processing skills: phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid naming. It aligns with the theoretical framework and administration protocols of the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing (CTOPP). The A-PPT comprises 10 distinct subtests and features a total of 325 items, all presented in standard Arabic and progressively increase in difficulty. Our research includes 550 Jordanian children aged 4–8, including both kindergarten and primary grades in elementary school. The A-PPT underwent meticulous piloting and comprehensive testing for validation and reliability. Face validity, determined through content expertise, yielded favorable outcomes. Internal consistency reliability, assessed via Cronbach’s alpha, demonstrated acceptable consistency levels for untimed subscales, ranging from .61 to .964, with the lowest alpha value observed in the 7–8-year-old age group, particularly for the Memory of Digits subtest. In contrast, timed subtests exhibited reliability coefficients between 0.817 and 0.916. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three interrelated subscales explaining 76% of the variance. Further evaluations of test-retest and inter-rater reliability demonstrated moderate to excellent correlation coefficients, with intraclass correlation coefficients ranging from .661 to .965 for test-retest reliability and from .748 to .958 for inter-rater reliability. While acknowledging certain limitations, this study's findings reaffirm the A-PPT's acceptable validity and reliability. This highlights its potential as a valuable assessment instrument for evaluating phonological processing skills within the Arabic-speaking population.

Processamento auditivo central e processamento fonológico em bilíngues do português brasileiro - inglês

ABSTRACT Purpose: to compare temporal auditory processing (temporal ordering) and phonological processing skills in bilingual and monolingual subjects. Methods: 100 undergraduate and postgraduate university students divided into a bilingual group (BG; n = 50) and a monolingual group (MG; n = 50). The study assessed the two groups’ phonological processing skills (phonological awareness, working memory - phonological loop, and rapid lexicon access) and temporal auditory processing skills (Frequency Pattern and Duration Pattern Tests). The Mann-Whitney test (p = 0.05) was used for statistical analysis. Results: BG performed better than MG in phonological awareness and phonological working memory tasks - nonword repetition and rapid naming tasks, except for color naming, and the two auditory processing tests. Conclusion: Bilinguals performed better on phonological and auditory tests. These skills help them identify and discriminate variations in the phonology of both languages, influencing their performance.

Proposta de intervenção fonoaudiológica em grupo de crianças com mau desempenho escolar

ABSTRACT Purpose: to present and critically discuss a collective care program to address phonological processing skills in children with poor school performance. Methods: an observational study with a non-probability sample of children aged 7 to 10 years with poor school performance, carried out in three stages: (1) development of the group speech-language-hearing intervention program, (2) application of the preliminary proposal to children with poor school performance, and (3), critical analysis of the results and feasibility of the program. The McNemar and Cochran Q tests were used to verify the association between the results before and after group speech-language-hearing intervention, with a p-value of ( 0.05 being considered statistically significant. Results: the group speech-language-hearing intervention program demonstrated the importance of structural planning, including the preparation, development, and progression of activities to stimulate phonological processing skills and their positive influence on the learning process. It can be used as a therapeutic resource for children with poor school performance, besides the possibilities and challenges of collective care. Conclusion: the proposal demonstrated its applicability to improve phonological processing skills and enhance therapeutic effects in children presented with poor school performance.

Predicting Phonological Awareness: The Roles of Mind-Wandering and Executive Attention

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the predictive relationships between mind-wandering, executive attention, and phonological awareness. Methodology: A cross-sectional design was utilized, encompassing 300 participants recruited from a large urban university. Participants underwent assessments using the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition (CTOPP-2) for phonological awareness, the Mind-Wandering Questionnaire (MWQ) for mind-wandering, and the Attention Network Test (ANT) for executive attention. Data were analyzed through multiple linear regression using SPSS Version 27, assessing the predictive power of mind-wandering and executive attention on phonological awareness. Findings: The regression analysis demonstrated that mind-wandering and executive attention significantly predict phonological awareness, explaining 35% of its variance (R² = 0.35). Mind-wandering was found to have a negative impact on phonological awareness, with a standardized beta coefficient (β) of -0.22 and a p-value of <0.01, indicating that an increase in mind-wandering behaviors is associated with a decline in phonological processing skills. In contrast, executive attention positively influenced phonological awareness, evidenced by a β of 0.28 and a p-value of <0.01. This suggests that individuals with higher executive attention capabilities tend to have better phonological processing abilities. These results highlight the nuanced roles that cognitive processes play in influencing phonological awareness, underscoring the differential impact of mind-wandering and executive attention on language skills development. Conclusion: The study indicates the significant roles that both mind-wandering and executive attention play in phonological awareness. While mind-wandering may serve as a potential hindrance, executive attention appears to facilitate phonological processing skills.

Efeito da remediação fonológica em criança com altas habilidades/superdotação e dislexia do desenvolvimento

ABSTRACT Twice-exceptionality is characterized as the presence of high performance concomitantly with deficiencies or incompatible conditions. An example is when giftedness manifest associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. This study is a clinical case report referring to the evaluative and interventional process of a 9- year-old child with the paradoxical combination of giftedness associated with dyslexia. It aims to compare the performance in phonological processing, reading and writing before and after phonological remediation. In the first assessment, the child demonstrated alphabetic level in reading, a transition phase between syllabic-alphabetic and alphabetical writing levels, and below-expected performance in phonological processing skills. After intervention, the results showed consistent improvements in phonological processing, the consolidation of alphabetical writing and orthographic reading level. In general, children with isolated dyslexia have persistent difficulties in several skills after intervention. The evolution shown after phonological remediation, especially at reading level, shows different characteristics than expected. Thus, it can be concluded that twice-exceptionality may have favored the overcoming of some of the shown difficulties more successfully. Studies on these combined conditions can contribute to a better understanding of this framework during the development of learning and to formulate specialized interventions.

Singing Language – Integrating Second Language Learning into Choir Practice

Language and music are closely tied in singing. It has even been argued that without language there is no song. However, can music and language learning through singing also be seen as being closely tied without first highlighting the boundaries between these disciplines? This study emphasizes a nonhierarchical approach to music and language learning by intertwining musical and linguistic activities in a choir context. The study explores the extent to which singing in a language-responsive choir can encourage productive second language use and enhance the sound hearing, phonological processing, pronunciation, and spoken language skills of adult choir participants with culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. The research material consists of individual pre-, middle-, and post-interviews and Phonology pre- and post-tests that were conducted with volunteer choir participants during 2019–2020. The analysis encompasses both thematic and statistical approaches. The findings are reflected through a hybrid choir practice that draws on a three-way dialogue between choir participants, the choir conductor, and the second language teacher. The results suggest that active and holistic second language use in a language-aware choir context decreases phonological challenges in second language auditory processing and verbal production, including spoken language. The findings of the interviews and the Phonology tests were in line with each other.

Assessing Phonological Processing in Children With Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose: Phonological processing skills, or using phoneme knowledge to process language, in preschool- and kindergarten-age children are an important indicator of children's future reading abilities. However, assessing phonological processing skills can be difficult in children with speech sound disorders because scoring often requires that children produce speech sound accurately. This tutorial presents assessment tasks that are appropriate for children with speech sound disorders to better identify children with phonological processing difficulties. Conclusions: The following phonological processing assessment tasks are recommended for children with speech sound disorders: receptive tasks for phonological awareness, the Syllable Repetition Task for phonological memory, and limited letter choices for rapid automatized naming in phonological retrieval tasks. These tasks can be modified for multilingual children. Appropriate assessment of phonological processing skills will help speech-language pathologists in differential diagnosis of children with true phonological processing difficulties and children whose speech sound errors may mask phonological processing abilities. Assessment of phonological processing skills is particularly important for children with speech sound disorders, whose speech errors may be evidence of phonological processing difficulties.

Long-Term Outcomes for Individuals With Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

The study's primary aims were to describe the long-term speech outcomes for adolescents and young adults with a history of childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) and to examine the association of persistent speech sound errors with measures of literacy skills, phonological processing, motor speech production, and parent report of early motor difficulty. Data from a large longitudinal 25-year study were used to explore outcomes for 32 individuals with a history of CAS, ages 12;6 (years;months) to 25 years (M = 17.4, SD = 4.7). Persistent and nonpersistent groups were compared on decoding, phonological processing, multisyllabic word repetition, diadochokinetic rate, and parent report of motor involvement. Parametric (Welch's t tests) and nonparametric tests (Wilcoxon and Fisher exact tests) were used to identify differences between the groups' distributions. Developmental trajectories of speech production were plotted. Outcomes for individuals with CAS are highly variable, with some demonstrating speech sound errors into adolescence and young adulthood. Speech sound errors were primarily on later developing sounds. Persistence was significantly associated with early motor difficulties. Difficulties with multisyllabic words, phonological processing, and literacy were often present regardless of persistence or nonpersistence of speech errors. Children with CAS are at risk for persistent speech sound errors into adulthood. For children showing limited progress with more traditional speech therapy, alternative interventions should be explored. Individuals with persistent speech sound errors are more likely to have a history of early motor deficits. Regardless of persistence, participants with CAS demonstrated ongoing weaknesses in literacy, phonological processing skills, and complex speech production tasks.

Interpretation of Misarticulated Words by Children With and Without Speech Sound Disorders.

Children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) often struggle with forming early representations for phonemes and words, which could impact their speech production as well as their lexical access. This difficulty may limit their ability to accurately identify nonexemplar productions of words, such as developmental misarticulations produced by peers. The purpose of this study was to examine word interpretation of misarticulated words by children with SSD. Seventeen monolingual English-speaking preschoolers were assessed for language, phonological processing, and articulation skills. Participants heard three types of words: accurate productions (e.g., "leaf"), common misarticulated productions (e.g., "weaf"), uncommon misarticulated productions (e.g., "yeaf"), and unrelated nonwords (e.g., "gim"). Children were presented with these words aurally and asked to select the picture that matched what they heard-either a real object or a blank square. The proportion of real object picture selections was calculated for each word type and compared within subjects. The findings indicate that children with SSD reliably associated common misarticulated words with pictured objects more frequently than they did in the uncommon misarticulation condition. These results were compared between subjects to typically developing (TD) peers' responses using a one-way analysis of variance. The results indicate that children with SSD identified common substitutions as real object pictures more often than TD peers. The results of this study suggest that children with SSD are sensitive to the commonness of misarticulations; however, they accept common substitutions as real object pictures significantly more often than TD peers.

Cognitive-linguistic skills and vocabulary knowledge breadth and depth in children’s L1 Chinese and L2 English

AbstractThis study examined the correlates of different aspects of vocabulary knowledge in L1 Chinese and L2 English in Hong Kong bilingual children (N = 481, age = 6–12 years old). Their nonverbal IQ, cognitive-linguistic skills, receptive and expressive vocabulary knowledge breadth, and vocabulary knowledge depth in Chinese and English were measured. Results demonstrated that morphological awareness was uniquely correlated with different aspects of vocabulary knowledge across Chinese and English. Phonological processing skills played different roles in vocabulary knowledge in L1 and L2. In addition, receptive vocabulary breadth uniquely contributed to expressive vocabulary breadth across languages. Moreover, both receptive and expressive vocabulary breadth contributed to vocabulary knowledge depth in L1 Chinese and L2 English. The findings highlight some shared and unique aspects of different vocabulary constructs across languages.

Phonological Processing Skills of Children with Phonological Delay and Phonological Disorder

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to examine the phonological processing skills between children with phonological delay and phonological disorder compared to those of typically developing children. This study aimed to explore whether children with phonological delay and phonological disorder show general or specific weakness on phonological processing skills and if the phonological processing skills can differentiate children with phonological delay from children with phonological disorder. Methods: The participants were 27 children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) and 20 typically developing children. Children with SSDs consisted of 10 children with phonological delay and 17 children with phonological disorder. The tasks for phonological processing skills involved phonological awareness at the levels of word, syllable, body-coda, and phoneme; phonological memory tests including nonword repetition and sentence repetition; and phonological retrieval through rapid automatized number naming test. Results: Children with phonological disorder showed significantly lower phonological awareness at word level than typically developing children and they also exhibited significantly lower nonword repetition than children with phonological delay as well as typically developing children. Both children with phonological delay and disorder performed less well on rapid automatized naming than typically developing children. Conclusion: This study suggests that children with phonological disorder are at higher risk for deficits in phonological processing, and their weakness in nonword repetition which taps phonological memory is more prominent than in children with normal speech or phonological delay.

Фонологический дефицит и его мозговые корреляты у детей с дислексией

This work is a comprehensive cross-methodological experimental study of phonological processing disorders in dyslexic Russian-speaking children. We developed and standardized a Russian-language test battery to assess phonological processing skills (The Russian Test of Phonological Processing), wich we then used to assess the features of phonological deficits in children with dyslexia and conduct an analysis of reading difficulties and their structural brain correlates using modern methods of videooculography and neuroimaging. The first phase’s findings revealed that more complex phonological tests were also more difficult, whereas children’s performance in these tests was found to be a significant predictor of reading speed. The project’s second phase identified five common patterns of eye movements during reading in children with and without dyslexia. We discovered that children with dyslexia exhibit the same patterns as their typically developing peers, albeit with a three-year delay. Finally, the third phase revealed significant differences in gray matter volume in the cerebellum, insula, and parietal lobule between group of children with dyslexia and control group of typically developing children.
 These findings have significant implications for clinical practice, interdisciplinary research on dyslexia, and possibly the educational system.

The Effects of an On-line Reading Intervention on the Development of English Decoding Skills among Moroccan Adult Struggling Readers

The present study examines the role of an intensive phonics-based online reading program in developing decoding skills among a group of low-intermediate adult learners. All the participants taking part in this experiment are defined as low-level, or struggling, readers. A lexical-decision task is administered to a total of twenty-four students divided into two main groups: treatment and control groups. The administration of the computer-based test is twofold and is done over two main phases: pre- and post-intervention. The online reading intervention, which is tailored to cover English orthographic knowledge and sound processing of high and low frequency words, is exclusively designed for the experimental group for four weeks. The intervention group demonstrates a significant improvement in spelling skills, reading speed and phoneme awareness. The results, on the one hand, suggest the importance of L2 print exposure which fosters phonological processing skills. On the other hand, the findings show that word identification processes operate at a pre-lexical access stage and are rudimentary to recognize and activate a lexical item.

Developmental changes in the contributions of phonological processing skills to Chinese character reading and arithmetic

This study examined the associations of phonological processing skills with reading and arithmetic ability in Chinese kindergartners (Mage = 5.56 years), third graders (Mage = 9.72 years), and fifth graders (Mage = 11.75 years) (N = 413) of Han descent. The results showed that phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) showed stronger relations than phonological memory with reading and arithmetic across grades. Furthermore, the associations of phonological awareness and RAN with reading were much stronger in kindergartners than in primary school children, whereas their relationships with arithmetic remained stable across grades. Among phonological skills, phonological awareness has a unique influence on arithmetic that is independent of Chinese character reading in third-graders and kindergartners. In contrast, RAN uniquely explained the variation in arithmetic skills in fifth graders when reading was statistically controlled for. These findings have important implications for understanding the co-development of reading and arithmetic across grades and raise the possibility of training in phonological awareness and/or RAN to help children at risk for learning disabilities.

The association of prenatal cocaine exposure with expressive and receptive language skills, phonological processing and reading ability at age 17

ObjectivePrenatal cocaine exposure (PCE) has been associated with small but significant effects on language development in childhood and early adolescence. This study examined whether this association persists into later adolescence and what relationship language skills may have with reading proficiency in this population. MethodsEnrolled were 338 (167 with PCE, 171 with NCE or no cocaine exposure) 17-year-olds recruited at birth who, together with their current caregiver, were seen as part of a 17-year follow-up. Participants were given assessments of reading achievement (WIAT-III), receptive and expressive language (CELF-IV), and phonological processing (CTOPP). Relationships between PCE status and language outcomes were modeled using multiple linear regression controlling for environmental and caregiver factors, and other prenatal substance exposures. ResultsAdolescents with PCE scored lower in areas of phonological processing and reading related skills compared to adolescents with NCE. PCE by sex interactions were identified on language, memory and spoken language comprehension, with lower scores for girls with PCE compared to girls with NCE. ConclusionThese findings suggest the persistence of PCE's relationship with phonological awareness well into adolescence. PCE was also associated with lower scores on measures of skills related to reading ability, which may be a manifestation of the observed deficits in phonological processing.