In this study, six teachers have been interviewed about their vision and teaching of reading comprehension, both for pupils who has cleared the reading code and those who have not. The aim is to illustrate if teachers in middle school spend time to exercise reading comprehension, or if this is left to the Swedish teachers. Thus only according to the subject Swedish, the students are entitled to be given the opportunity to develop reading strategies. The interviews are semi-structured based on qualitative research. The informants are three teachers of Swedish and three teachers of other subjects. Two different interview guides were used containing three questions. The main questions were the same but each guide had some question directly connected to the subject. The results show that all teachers believe that exercising reading comprehension is to be conducted in all subjects, not just Swedish. However, the work is done differently. Teachers in the Swedish subject discuss their teaching in a much more purposeful way than the other teachers. Teachers in the Swedish subject have developed their competence concerning reading comprehension and have got more knowledge than those on other subjects. Those teachers who do not teach Swedish as a subject say that lack of time is the reason why reading comprehension cannot be integrated to the extent that they desire / I den här studien har sex verksamma lärare intervjuats angående deras syn på undervisning av läsförståelse, både när det gäller elever som knäckt läskoden respektive de som inte har det. Syftet är att åskådliggöra om samtliga lärare på mellanstadiet lägger tid på läsförståelseträningen, eller om det är lämnat åt svensklärarna, då det enbart står i ämnet svenska att eleverna ska ges möjlighet att utveckla lässtrategier. Intervjuerna är semi-strukturerade och bygger på en kvalitativ studie. Informanterna är tre lärare i svenska och tre lärare i andra ämnen Två olika intervjuguider användes som innehöll tre frågor, huvudfrågorna användes till samtliga lärare medan någon fråga var direkt riktad till de ämnen lärarna undervisar inom. Resultatet visar att samtliga lärare är eniga om att läsförståelseträning ska bedrivas i alla ämnen och inte bara svenska. Däremot skiljer sig båda kategorierna åt då svensklärarna diskuterar sin undervisning på ett mycket mer målmedvetet sätt än de övriga lärarna

A predictable alphabet book was proposed as a natural way to observe emergent readers’ attempts to integrate their developing literacy skills and knowledge base, despite not yet having achieved conventional levels of reading. Study 1 examined how accuracy in identifying words in an alphabet book in kindergarten related with emergent skills measured in kindergarten and with subsequent reading ability. One hundred and three children completed tests of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary, and rapid naming in kindergarten and were audiotaped reading an alphabet book with their parent. Reading ability was assessed one year later. Correlations were consistent with previous research identifying phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, vocabulary and rapid naming as significant correlates of emergent reading. Alphabet book accuracy correlated with subsequent reading, and the relative indirect effects of kindergarten phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge on Grade 1 reading through kindergarten alphabet book reading were significant. Findings supported the conceptualization of how well a child identifies words in an alphabet book as a representation of early skill integration. Study 2 built upon these findings by examining self-reported reading strategies. Siegler’s (1996) overlapping waves model was used as a framework, which emphasizes variability, adaptive choice, and gradual change in children’s problem solving. Ninety-one kindergarteners completed tests of phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and vocabulary, and read an experimentally designed alphabet book having pages of varying difficulty with a researcher twice over several months. Findings supported the three main features of the overlapping waves model. Children reported a variety of strategies across the book and on individual pages within it. They worked most quickly on the easiest pages, reported more strategies on the most difficult pages, and chose adaptively among their strategy repertoire. The number of strategies reported and the number of accurately labeled pages increased over time. The relative indirect effects of phonemic awareness and letter sound knowledge on alphabet book accuracy through the use of graphophonemic strategies were significant. Findings support the application of the overlapping waves model to the domain of reading. Overall, these studies highlight the potential for using typical literacy activities to deepen our understanding of the process of learning to read.

The Double Deficit Hypothesis of dyslexia posits that students can be grouped into four distinct groups: (a) average readers, (b) students with phonological deficits, (c) students with naming speed deficits, and (d) students with double deficits: those having both (b) and (c). The present study examines the stability of the Double Deficit groups from Kindergarten to Grade 2. 214 children were assessed in Kindergarten and subsequently tested in early Grade 1, late Grade 1, and Grade 2. Tests administered at each time included measures of naming speed, phonological awareness, and a variety of reading measures. Discriminant analyses indicated that approximately 70% of Grade 2 children were successfully classified by Kindergarten measures. Contingency analyses indicated moderate stability from Kindergarten to Grade 2 and more movement between groups between Kindergarten and Grade 1. The Double Deficit groups differed in reading achievement at each testing time, with the Double Deficit group obtaining the lowest scores. Implications for early assessment and intervention are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-01-06 12:54:02.063

Remediation of skills deficient in students with dyslexia typically occurs via withdrawal interventions focusing on phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge. While one-on-one interventions are widely used, little attention has been paid to the alternative teaching approach of integrating multiple linguistic component interventions within the classroom. Accordingly, this study aims to examine the effectiveness of using word study within the classroom on the spelling skills of students with dyslexia. The study was divided into two parts: 1) examining the efficacy of incorporating a small group multiple linguistic intervention within the classroom on the spelling skills of 9-year-old students with dyslexia, and if there were similar effects for reading abilities; and 2) analysing the effects of word study instruction at the whole group level on student spelling. Two case study students (both 9-years of age) with dyslexia underwent small group multiple linguistic intervention, and were monitored for 8 weeks (3 days/week; 20 minutes/session) using baseline, intervention and post-intervention probes. Whole group word study instruction was enacted in a Year 4/5 classroom for 8 weeks (1 day/week; 1 hour/session), and the spelling performance of the 9-year-old students (i.e., n = 7) were compared to same age students from a control classroom (i.e., n = 7) in pre-post assessments. Both small group intervention case study students demonstrated significant improvements in spelling, yet minimal improvement was seen for reading. Whole group comparisons indicated no significant improvement. The findings for this study have implications for: a) research on effective interventions for older children with dyslexia, and b) the practical use of spelling interventions that are designed to co-exist within classroom instruction.

International studies of reading achievement demonstrate that significant inequalities in reading outcomes continue to exist among some of the world’s wealthiest countries, despite strong investment in initiatives directed towards raising literacy achievement for all children (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation—UNESCO, 2009; United Nations Children’s Fund—UNICEF, 2010). One approach towards the elevation of reading achievement is to investigate how key predictors of reading success are incorporated into everyday classroom literacy practices. Phonological awareness (PA) is widely recognised as a powerful predictor and underlying precursor to early reading success for both typically developing and at-risk readers (Al Otaiba, Kosanovich, & Torgesen, 2012; Blachman, Ball, Black, & Tangel, 2000; Goswami, 2001; Pressley, 2006). A majority of research demonstrating the benefits of PA to literacy growth has been conducted under controlled research settings outside of the classroom environment (Ehri, Nunes, Willows, Schuster, Yaghoub-Zadeh, & Shanahan, 2001; Gillon, 2000a, 2005; Gillon & McNeill, 2009), and thus less is known about whether such benefits hold true when integrated into the heterogeneous classroom setting. For this reason, four experiments reported in this thesis investigated whether PA can be efficiently and effectively integrated into the classroom literacy programme with the overarching aim of raising reading achievement and equalising reading outcomes for the majority of children in the first year of formal education. In the first experiment (reported in Chapter 3), time-efficiency and congruency of scores between a computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool (described in Chapter 2) and a paper-based equivalent were examined. Thirty-three children aged between four years 10 months and five years zero months participated in the study, 12 of whom presented with moderate-severe speech delay (MSD). Participants were randomly allocated to either Group A or Group B experimental assessment conditions. A crossover research design was employed where Group A received the paper-based version of the PA assessment followed two weeks later by the equivalent computer-based assessment (CBA). Group B received the same assessments but in the reverse order of delivery. That is, the computer-based PA assessment first followed two weeks later by the paper-based counterpart. Results demonstrated that: 1) the CBA generated comparable scores to the paper-based equivalent for both children with typical development and children with MSD, and 2) CBA took 31 per cent less time than paper-based administration. These results demonstrate that CBA can provide educators with a time-efficient approach to the screening and monitoring of PA development in the classroom while maintaining equivalency of scores with paper-based testing. Having established the time-efficiency of CBA, the next step was to investigate the use of the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool as part of the beginning classroom reading programme. In the second experiment (reported in Chapter 4), the influence of a short and intensive period of teacher-implemented classroom PA instruction on reading outcomes in the first year of education was investigated. One-hundred and twenty-nine children aged five-years participated in the study. Using a quasi-experimental design, thirty-four children in two classrooms received 10 weeks of PA instruction from their teachers, as an adjunct to the ‘usual’ reading programme. Ninety-five children from 10 classrooms continued with the ‘usual’ reading programme, which included phonics instruction but did not target PA. Results demonstrated that children exposed to classroom PA instruction performed significantly higher on reading and spelling measures compared to children who received the ‘usual’ reading programme only. Of importance, the number of children experiencing word decoding difficulties after one year of schooling reduced from 26 per cent among children who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme to 6 per cent among children who received classroom PA instruction. These results provide evidence that a short and intensive period of classroom-wide PA instruction in the first year of schooling can have a positive influence on raising reading achievement. In the third experiment (reported in Chapter 5), the effect of classroom PA instruction on raising reading achievement and reducing inequality in literacy outcomes for children with spoken language impairment (SLI) was examined. The data from 129 five-year-old children who participated in the second experiment were extracted and analysed. End-of-year reading outcomes between children with SLI who received classroom PA instruction (n = 7) was compared to: 1) children with typical language development (TD) who received classroom PA instruction (n = 27), 2) children with SLI who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme (n = 21), and 3) children with TD who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme (n = 74). Children with SLI who received classroom PA instruction showed significant improvements in PA, reading and spelling acquisition immediately and up to six months following PA instruction. However, this cohort, in comparison to children with TD, appeared less able to transfer their enhanced PA knowledge to reading and writing tasks. Of importance, children with SLI who received PA instruction performed significantly higher than children with SLI who followed the ‘usual’ reading curriculum; and on par with children with TD who followed the ‘usual’ reading programme. Children with TD who received classroom PA instruction significantly outperformed all other cohorts in this experiment on end-of year reading measures. These results indicate that both children with TD and children with risk for reading difficulties can benefit from classroom-wide teacher-directed PA instruction. These findings have positive implications for elevating reading achievement and reducing inequality between good and poor readers. In the fourth experiment (reported in Chapter 6), the validity and reliability of the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool was investigated and established. Using a longitudinal research design, the responses of 95 children to test items in the CBA at the start, middle and end of the first year at school were collated and analysed to provide evidence of content, construct and criterion validity, in addition to test-retest and internal consistency reliability. A number of statistical analyses were employed including Rasch Model analysis, exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. Results demonstrated that the majority of test items were appropriate for five-year-old children in the first year of school and sampled a spectrum of ability levels that would be present in a typical classroom environment. Rhyme oddity, initial phoneme identity and letter-knowledge tasks were most appropriate at school-entry while tasks of final phoneme identity, phoneme blending and phoneme segmentation became more suitable by the middle and end stages of the first year at school. Importantly, performance on the CBA predicted end-of-year reading status with 94 per cent accuracy, and in conjunction with language abilities accounted for 68.9 per cent of the variance in end-of-year reading performance. These findings indicate that the computer-based PA screening and monitoring tool developed and applied in this thesis has sufficient validity and reliability to be used confidently as a time-efficient assessment tool in the classroom. The results from the experiments reported in this thesis provide evidence that PA can be efficiently and effectively integrated into the beginning classroom reading programme from two complementary perspectives: 1) through use of computer-based screening and monitoring of PA skills, and 2) through implementation of a short and intensive period of teacher-directed classroom-wide PA instruction. The results reported in this thesis demonstrate that the evidenced-based integration of key predictors of literacy success, such as PA, into existing classroom programmes can support national and international initiatives that seek to raise reading achievement and reduce inequalities in literacy outcomes for all children.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) are reported to experience difficulty with spoken and written language which can persist through the lifespan. However, little is known about the spoken and written language profiles of children with DS in the New Zealand social and education environment, and a thorough investigation of these profiles has yet to be conducted. The few controlled interventions to remediate language deficits in children with DS that are reported in the literature typically focus on remediation of a single language domain, with the effectiveness of interventions which integrate spoken and written language goals yet to be explored for this population. The experiments reported in this thesis aim to address these areas of need. The following questions are asked 1) What are the phonological awareness, speech, language and literacy skills of New Zealand children with DS? 2) What are the home and school literacy environments of New Zealand children with DS and how do they support written language development? and 3) What are the immediate and longer term effects of an integrated phonological awareness intervention on enhancing aspects of spoken and written language development in young children with DS? These questions will be addressed through the following chapters. The first experiment (presented in Chapter 2) was conducted in two parts. Part 1 consisted of the screening of the early developing phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and decoding skills of 77 primary school children with DS and revealed considerable variability between participants on all measures. Although some children were able to demonstrate mastery of the phoneme identity and letter knowledge skills, floor effects were also apparent. Data were analysed by age group (5 - 8 years and 9 -14 years) which revealed increased performance with maturation, with older children outperforming their younger peers on all measures. Approximately one quarter of all children were unable to decode any words, 6.6% demonstrated decoding skills at a level expected for 7 - 8 year old children and one child demonstrated decoding skills at an age equivalent level. Significant relationships between decoding skills and letter knowledge were found to exist. In Part 2 of the experiment, 27 children with DS who participated in the screening study took part in an in-depth investigation into their speech, phonological awareness, reading accuracy and comprehension and narrative language skills. Results of the speech assessments revealed the participants’ speech was qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the speech of younger children with typical development, but that elements of disorder were also evident. Results of the phonological awareness measures indicated participants were more successful with blending than with segmentation at both sentence and syllable level. Rhyme generation scores were particularly low. Reading accuracy scores were in advance of reading comprehension, with strong relationships demonstrated between reading accuracy and phonological awareness and letter knowledge. Those children who were better readers also had better language skills, producing longer sentences and using a greater number of different words in their narratives. The production of more advanced narrative structures was restricted to better readers. In the second experiment (presented in Chapter 3), the home literacy environment of 85 primary school aged children with DS was investigated. Parents of participants completed a questionnaire which explored the frequency and duration of literacy interactions, other ways parents support and facilitate literacy, parents’ priorities for their children at school, and the child’s literacy skills. Results revealed that the homes of participants were generally rich in literacy resources, and that parents and children read together regularly, although many children were reported to take a passive role duding joint story reading. Many parents also reported actively teaching their child letter names and sounds and encouraging literacy development in other ways such as language games, computer use, television viewing and library access. Writing at home was much less frequent than reading, and the allocation of written homework was much less common than reading homework. In the third experiment (presented in Chapter 4), the school literacy environment of 87 primary school aged children with DS (identified in the second experiment) was explored. In a parallel survey to the one described in Chapter 3, the teachers of participants completed a questionnaire which explored the frequency and duration of literacy interactions, the role of the child during literacy interactions, the child’s literacy skills, and other ways literacy is supported. The results of the questionnaire revealed nearly all children took part in regular reading instruction in the classroom although the amount of time reportedly dedicated to reading instruction was extremely variable amongst respondents. The average amount of time spent on reading instruction was consistent with that reported nationally and in advance of the international average for Year 5 children. Reading instruction was typically given in small groups or in a one on one setting and included both ‘top-down’ and bottom up’ strategies. Children were more likely to be assigned reading homework compared to written homework, with writing activities and instruction reported to be particularly challenging. In the fourth experiment (reported in Chapter 5), the effectiveness of an experimental integrated phonological awareness intervention was evaluated for ten children with DS, who ranged in age from 4;04 to 5;05 (M = 4;11, SD = 4.08 months). The study employed a multiple single-subject design to evaluate the effect of the intervention on participants’ trained and untrained speech measures, and examined the development of letter knowledge and phonological awareness skills. The 18 week intervention included the following three components; 1. parent implemented print referencing during joint story reading, 2. speech goals integrated with letter knowledge and phoneme awareness activities conducted by the speech-language therapist (SLT) in a play based format, and 3. letter knowledge and phoneme awareness activities conducted by the computer specialist (CS) adapted for presentation on a computer. The intervention was implemented by the SLT and CS at an early intervention centre during two 20 minute sessions per week, in two 6 week therapy blocks separated by a 6 week break (i.e. 8 hours total). The parents implemented the print referencing component in four 10 minute sessions per week across the 18 week intervention period (approximately 12 hours total). Results of the intervention revealed all ten children made statistically significant gains on their trained and untrained speech targets with some children demonstrating transfer to other phonemes in the same sound class. Six children demonstrated gains in letter knowledge and nine children achieved higher scores on phonological awareness measures at post-intervention, however all phonological awareness scores were below chance. The findings demonstrated that dedicating some intervention time to facilitating the participants’ letter knowledge and phonological awareness was not at the expense of speech gains. The fifth experiment (presented in Chapter 6) comprises a re-evaluation of the speech, phonological awareness, and letter knowledge, and an evaluation of the decoding and spelling development in children with DS who had previously participated in an integrated phonological awareness intervention (see Chapter 5), after they had subsequently received two terms (approximately 20 weeks) of formal schooling. Speech accuracy was higher at follow-up than at post-intervention on standardised speech measures and individual speech targets for the group as a whole, with eight of the ten participants demonstrating increased scores on their individual speech targets. Group scores on both letter knowledge measures were higher at follow-up than at post-intervention, with nine participants maintaining or improving on post-intervention performance. The majority of participants exhibited higher phonological awareness scores at follow-up on both the phoneme level assessments, with above chance scores achieved by five participants on one of the tasks, however, scores on the rhyme matching task demonstrated no evidence of growth. Some transfer of phonological awareness and letter knowledge was evident, with five children able to decode some words on the single word reading test and three children able to represent phonemes correctly in the experimental spelling task. The emergence of these early literacy skills highlighted the need for ongoing monitoring of children’s ability to transfer their improved phonological awareness and letter knowledge to decoding and spelling performance. In the sixth experiment (presented in Chapter 7) the long term effects of the integrated phonological awareness intervention was evaluated for one boy with DS aged 5;2 at the start of the intervention. The study monitored Ben’s speech and literacy development up to the age of 8;0 (34 months post pre-school intervention) which included two years of formal schooling. Ben demonstrated sustained growth on all measures with evidence of a growing ability to transfer letter-sound knowledge and phoneme-grapheme correspondences to the reading and spelling process. The results indicated an intervention which is provided early and which simultaneously targets speech, letter knowledge and phonological awareness goals provides a promising alternative to conventional therapy, and that integrating spoken and written therapy goals for children with DS can be effective in facilitating development in both domains. This thesis provides evidence that the spoken and written language abilities of New Zealand children with DS exhibit a pattern of delay and disorder that is largely consistent with those of children with DS from other countries reported in the literature. The home and school literacy environments of children in New Zealand with DS are rich in literacy resources and are, for the most part, supportive of their literacy development. The immediate and longer term results of the integrated phonological awareness intervention suggest that it is possible to achieve significant and sustained gains in speech, letter knowledge and phonological awareness which may contribute to the remediation of the persistent and compromised spoken and written language profile characteristic of individuals with DS.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica vem ganhando muito destaque quando se discute o processo de aquisição da leitura e da escrita de jovens com dificuldades de aprendizagem. Distinguir os sons das palavras, compreender e manipular as sílabas parece afetar a capacidade para ler e escrever qualquer palavra. O presente estudo tem como objetivos verificar os efeitos de um programa de ensino para favorecer o desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica. Esse programa de ensino foi elaborado com base em estudos e nas atividades realizadas por Capovilla e Capovilla (2000), Valério (1998), Moussatché (2002), Nunes (2009), dentre outros. A pesquisa está composta por dois estudos: estudo piloto e esstudo 1. O estudo piloto, iniciado em 2012 ? foi formado por dois jovens com deficiência intelectual que frequentavam uma escola regular e apresentavam dificuldade na leitura e escrita. Um estava no início e o outro já havia passado pelo processo de alfabetização. O estudo 1 iniciado em 2013, foi formado por quatro jovens com deficiência intelectual que estavam no processo de alfabetização e frequentavam uma escola especial. A pesquisa foi realizada nas escolas onde esses alunos estavam matriculados. A análise dos testes de Prova de Consciência Fonológica proposta por Capovilla e Capovilla (2000) o pré-teste - mostrou que os sujeitos do estudo piloto apresentavam na primeira testagem bom rendimento em tarefas como aliteração e rima, mas demonstraram dificuldade na parte de segmentação, síntese e manipulação fonêmica.Com a segunda testagem, o pós-teste - realizada após a implementação de um programa para favorecer o desenvolvimento de habilidades de consciência fonológica pode-se observar uma melhora no desempenho dessas habilidades. No estudo 1, o pré-teste mostrou que os alunos apresentavam dificuldades nas atividades que envolviam as habilidades de adição, subtração e transposição fonêmica e um melhor desempenho em atividades de rima e aliteração. Na prova de leitura oral de palavras e pseudopalavras, observou-se maior dificuldade na leitura das pseudopalavras. No pós-teste, aplicado após o período de intervenção com o programa supracitado, observou-se que nas questões de rima, adição e subtração silábica, adição e subtração fonêmica e transposição silábica, os sujeitos apresentaram aumento na porcentagem de acerto das atividades. Nas atividades de aliteração, transposição fonêmica e trocadilho os sujeitos mantiveram os mesmos resultados do pré-teste ou apresentaram queda na porcentagem de acertos. Nas provas de leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras os sujeitos não demonstraram aumento na porcentagem de leitura correta, com exceção apenas de Ana Clara, que apresentou pequeno aumento no seu resultado. Na parte de compreensão de leitura, os participantes apresentaram pequena alteração no resultado, mas não temos como associar essa melhora ao desempenho nas provas de consciência fonológica. Na avaliação de ditado de palavras e pseudopalavras os alunos demonstraram aumento nos resultados / The development of phonological awareness stands out when the process of acquisition of reading and writing for young people with learning disability is discussed. Distinguishing the sounds of words, understanding and handling the syllables seems to favor the capacity of reading and writing any word. The study presented has the main objective to verify the effects of a learning program that favors the development of the phonological awareness. This learning program was created based on studies and activities experimented by Capovilla and Capovilla (2000), Valério (1998), Moussatché (2002), Nunes (2009), among other authors. The subjects involved in this research are divided between the pilot group and study number 1 group. The pilot is formed by two young people with learning disability that attended regular school and that demonstrated difficulties in reading and writing. One of the subjects was beginning the literacy process and the other had already been through it. The study one group began this work in 2013, it was formed by four young people with learning disabilities who were in literacy process and attended a special school. The analysis of the tests for Phonological Awareness Proof (Prova de Conciência Fonológica) proposed by Capovilla and Capovilla (2002) showed that the subjects of the pilot study group demonstrated good results for the first testing batch in chores like alliteration, rhyming and also demonstrated difficulties in segmentation parts, synthesis and phonemics handling. With the second testing batch, obtained after the implementation of a program favoring the development of phonological awareness, it was possible to observe the improvement of these abilities. In study number one group it was possible to observe with the first results that the students demonstrated difficulties with activities that involved actions such as adding, subtracting and phonemic transposition and a better performance in activities involving rhyming and alliteration. From the group of four students that took part of the reading tests (words and pseudowords), it was possible to observe greater difficulty to perform the reading of the pseudowords. In a late test, applied after the intervention phase, it was possible to observe that in matters of rhyming, adding and subtracting syllables, adding and subtracting phonemes and syllables transposition, the subjects demonstrated an increase of percentage of getting the activities done correctly. In the activities of alliteration, phonemic transposition and wordplay, the subjects kept the results or presented a decrease of percentage in getting the activities done correctly. In reading tests of words and pseudowords, the subjects did not demonstrate increase in the percentage of correct reading, with the exception of Ana Clara, that demonstrated a small increase in her personal results. Concerning comprehension of reading, they demonstrated little alteration in the results, but it is not possible to link this improvement to the performance of phonological awareness tests. For the assessment of words and pseudowords dictation activity, the students demonstrated and increase on their personal results

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / O desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica vem ganhando muito destaque quando se discute o processo de aquisição da leitura e da escrita de jovens com dificuldades de aprendizagem. Distinguir os sons das palavras, compreender e manipular as sílabas parece afetar a capacidade para ler e escrever qualquer palavra. O presente estudo tem como objetivos verificar os efeitos de um programa de ensino para favorecer o desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica. Esse programa de ensino foi elaborado com base em estudos e nas atividades realizadas por Capovilla e Capovilla (2000), Valério (1998), Moussatché (2002), Nunes (2009), dentre outros. A pesquisa está composta por dois estudos: estudo piloto e esstudo 1. O estudo piloto, iniciado em 2012 ? foi formado por dois jovens com deficiência intelectual que frequentavam uma escola regular e apresentavam dificuldade na leitura e escrita. Um estava no início e o outro já havia passado pelo processo de alfabetização. O estudo 1 iniciado em 2013, foi formado por quatro jovens com deficiência intelectual que estavam no processo de alfabetização e frequentavam uma escola especial. A pesquisa foi realizada nas escolas onde esses alunos estavam matriculados. A análise dos testes de Prova de Consciência Fonológica proposta por Capovilla e Capovilla (2000) o pré-teste - mostrou que os sujeitos do estudo piloto apresentavam na primeira testagem bom rendimento em tarefas como aliteração e rima, mas demonstraram dificuldade na parte de segmentação, síntese e manipulação fonêmica.Com a segunda testagem, o pós-teste - realizada após a implementação de um programa para favorecer o desenvolvimento de habilidades de consciência fonológica pode-se observar uma melhora no desempenho dessas habilidades. No estudo 1, o pré-teste mostrou que os alunos apresentavam dificuldades nas atividades que envolviam as habilidades de adição, subtração e transposição fonêmica e um melhor desempenho em atividades de rima e aliteração. Na prova de leitura oral de palavras e pseudopalavras, observou-se maior dificuldade na leitura das pseudopalavras. No pós-teste, aplicado após o período de intervenção com o programa supracitado, observou-se que nas questões de rima, adição e subtração silábica, adição e subtração fonêmica e transposição silábica, os sujeitos apresentaram aumento na porcentagem de acerto das atividades. Nas atividades de aliteração, transposição fonêmica e trocadilho os sujeitos mantiveram os mesmos resultados do pré-teste ou apresentaram queda na porcentagem de acertos. Nas provas de leitura de palavras e pseudopalavras os sujeitos não demonstraram aumento na porcentagem de leitura correta, com exceção apenas de Ana Clara, que apresentou pequeno aumento no seu resultado. Na parte de compreensão de leitura, os participantes apresentaram pequena alteração no resultado, mas não temos como associar essa melhora ao desempenho nas provas de consciência fonológica. Na avaliação de ditado de palavras e pseudopalavras os alunos demonstraram aumento nos resultados / The development of phonological awareness stands out when the process of acquisition of reading and writing for young people with learning disability is discussed. Distinguishing the sounds of words, understanding and handling the syllables seems to favor the capacity of reading and writing any word. The study presented has the main objective to verify the effects of a learning program that favors the development of the phonological awareness. This learning program was created based on studies and activities experimented by Capovilla and Capovilla (2000), Valério (1998), Moussatché (2002), Nunes (2009), among other authors. The subjects involved in this research are divided between the pilot group and study number 1 group. The pilot is formed by two young people with learning disability that attended regular school and that demonstrated difficulties in reading and writing. One of the subjects was beginning the literacy process and the other had already been through it. The study one group began this work in 2013, it was formed by four young people with learning disabilities who were in literacy process and attended a special school. The analysis of the tests for Phonological Awareness Proof (Prova de Conciência Fonológica) proposed by Capovilla and Capovilla (2002) showed that the subjects of the pilot study group demonstrated good results for the first testing batch in chores like alliteration, rhyming and also demonstrated difficulties in segmentation parts, synthesis and phonemics handling. With the second testing batch, obtained after the implementation of a program favoring the development of phonological awareness, it was possible to observe the improvement of these abilities. In study number one group it was possible to observe with the first results that the students demonstrated difficulties with activities that involved actions such as adding, subtracting and phonemic transposition and a better performance in activities involving rhyming and alliteration. From the group of four students that took part of the reading tests (words and pseudowords), it was possible to observe greater difficulty to perform the reading of the pseudowords. In a late test, applied after the intervention phase, it was possible to observe that in matters of rhyming, adding and subtracting syllables, adding and subtracting phonemes and syllables transposition, the subjects demonstrated an increase of percentage of getting the activities done correctly. In the activities of alliteration, phonemic transposition and wordplay, the subjects kept the results or presented a decrease of percentage in getting the activities done correctly. In reading tests of words and pseudowords, the subjects did not demonstrate increase in the percentage of correct reading, with the exception of Ana Clara, that demonstrated a small increase in her personal results. Concerning comprehension of reading, they demonstrated little alteration in the results, but it is not possible to link this improvement to the performance of phonological awareness tests. For the assessment of words and pseudowords dictation activity, the students demonstrated and increase on their personal results

This study investigated the performance of children with phonological disorders in the working memory skills and in the phonological awareness skills, which are parts of the phonological processing and, whether such skills are related to each other, to the chronological age and to the degree of the phonological deviation. The sample was composed of 28 children with phonological deviation, ranging from 4 years old to 6 years and 7 months old, illiterate, with a hypothesis of pre-syllabic writing and, it was divided into two groups as follows: one with 21 children with a more severe phonological deviation and the other with 7 children with a softer phonological deviation. Speech-language and hearing evaluations were undertaken in order to diagnose the phonological deviation along as phonological assessments to determine the phonological system and to rate the degree of the speech impairment through a qualitative analysis. The children s performance in the working memory assessments was checked through the repetition of a sequence of four digits to assess the central executive and the phonological memory and, the repetition of non-words task to assess specifically the phonological memory, according to Baddeley and Hitch s proposal (1974 apud GATHERCOLE & BADDELEY, 1993), revised by Baddeley (1986). The performance in the phonological awareness evaluation was also checked, including the syllabic and phonemic awareness. In order to analyze the correlation among the evaluations, Pearson s and Spearman s Coefficients were used and, the results are as follows: 1) the sample has presented a lower performance in the phonological memory and phonological awareness when compared to the performance of children with normal phonological development; 2) there has been a significant correlation between the repetition of non-words task and the syllable awareness; 3) there was a statistical correlation between age and the repetition of non-words task and, a weak correlation between age and the digit repetitions and, between age and phonological awareness. Comparing the groups, in order to check whether the mean differences were significant, the testes t and Kruskal-Wallis were used and, it was found that the children with a more severe phonological deviation have performed lower in all the tasks when compared to the group of softer deviations and, such difference was significant in the total scores of the phonological and in the phonemic awareness. It concluded that the preschoolers with phonological deviation, when considered as a group and not individually, have presented worse performance in tasks of phonological awareness and phonological memory than groups of children with normal phonological development and, that such skills are correlated in a significant way. Children with more severe phonological deviation have presented worse performance than children with less speech impairments, with a statistical difference in the phonological awareness tasks. / Este estudo teve por objetivo investigar o desempenho de crianças com desvio fonológico nas habilidades em memória de trabalho e em consciência fonológica, as quais fazem parte do processamento fonológico, e verificar se estas habilidades estão relacionadas entre si, com a idade cronológica e com a severidade do desvio fonológico. A amostra foi formada por 28 crianças com desvio fonológico, com idades entre 4 anos e 6 anos e 7 meses, não alfabetizadas, com hipótese de escrita pré-silábica, e foi dividida em dois grupos, sendo um com 21 crianças com desvio fonológico mais severo e outro com 7 crianças com desvio fonológico mais leve. Avaliações fonoaudiológicas e audiológica foram realizadas para o diagnóstico do desvio fonológico juntamente com avaliações fonológicas para determinar o sistema fonológico e classificar a severidade da fala através de uma medida qualitativa. O desempenho das crianças na avaliação da memória de trabalho foi verificado através da tarefa de repetição de seqüências de dígitos para avaliar o executivo central e a memória fonológica, e da tarefa de repetição de não-palavras para avaliar especificamente a memória fonológica, segundo a proposta de Baddeley & Hitch (1974 apud GATHERCOLE & BADDELEY, 1993), revisada por Baddeley (1986). O desempenho na avaliação de consciência fonológica também foi verificado, incluindo tarefas de consciência silábica e fonêmica. Para analisar a correlação entre as medidas foram utilizados os testes Coeficiente de Pearson e Coeficiente de Spearman, através dos quais verificou-se que: 1) a amostra apresentou desempenho inferior em memória fonológica e consciência fonológica quando comparadas ao desempenho de crianças com desenvolvimento fonológico normal; 2) houve correlação significativa entre a tarefa de repetição de não-palavras e de consciência de sílabas; 3) houve uma correlação estatisticamente significativa entre idade e tarefa de repetição de não-palavras e uma fraca correlação entre idade com a repetição de dígitos e com a consciência fonológica. Na comparação entre os grupos, para verificar se as diferenças de médias eram significativas utilizaram-se os testes t e Kruskal-Wallis, e verificou-se que as crianças com desvio fonológico mais severo apresentaram desempenhos inferiores em todas as tarefas do que o grupo com desvio fonológico mais leve, sendo esta diferença significativa nos escores totais de consciência fonológica e na consciência fonêmica. Concluiu-se que crianças com desvio fonológico em idade pré-escolar, quando consideradas como um grupo e não individualmente, apresentaram pior desempenho em tarefas de consciência fonológica e memória fonológica do que grupos de crianças com desenvolvimento fonológico normal, e que estas habilidades estão correlacionadas significativamente. Crianças com desvio fonológico mais severo apresentam pior desempenho do que crianças com menos alterações na fala, com diferença estatisticamente significativa nas tarefas de consciência fonológica.

Submitted by Viviane Lima da Cunha (viviane@biblioteca.ufpb.br) on 2015-11-30T14:41:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4876545 bytes, checksum: 71a9aab121b77ff0afaee45ed0ec8e25 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-11-30T14:41:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 4876545 bytes, checksum: 71a9aab121b77ff0afaee45ed0ec8e25 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-13 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This study aimed to analyze if the relationship between phonological awareness and the acquisition of writing is productive for the literacy process. It is a study of qualitative, descriptive and interventionist nature, which was developed with students belonging to the initial cycle of literacy from a public rural school in Curral de Cima (PB). To achieve our purpose, the research was conducted in three stages: the first we apply a pre-test to diagnose levels of phonological awareness and writing of the surveyed students and, by analyzing, observing the difficulties presented written; in the second stage, we developed and applied a proposal of didactic intervention based on the Pacto Nacional Pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa, PNAIC (BRASIL, 2013), with activities that promote the development of phonological awareness and writing; and the third step, we apply a post-test in order to verify the performance of students in relation to the acquisition of writing. Data collected constituted the corpus of this research and the results allowed us to understand how the relationship between phonological awareness and the writing acquisition process is productive to the process of literacy; but for this, it must prioritize the teaching methodology that seeks to provide students an understanding of the alphabetic writing system, through the development of phonological awareness. To give theoretical support to this work were fundamental studies developed by: Smith (2003-2014), Cagliari (2009) and Morais (2012), which based our design on literacy and literacy. Also contributed to the understanding and analysis of the data the reflections of Alves (2009), Capovilla and Capovilla (2010-2011), Lemle (1991), Morais (2012), Kato (1993) and the PNAIC (BRAZIL, 2012-2013) on phonological awareness and written language. From the results of this study, we reflect on our practice of the classroom, correlating the phonological awareness of contributions and written language to reframe the literacy process. / O presente trabalho objetivou avaliar se a relação entre a consciência fonológica e a aquisição da escrita é produtiva para o processo de alfabetização. Trata-se de um estudo de natureza qualitativa, de caráter descritivo e intervencionista, que foi desenvolvido com alunos pertencentes ao ciclo inicial da alfabetização de uma escola rural da rede pública municipal da cidade de Curral de Cima (PB). Para atingir o nosso propósito, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida em três etapas: na primeira etapa, aplicamos um pré-teste para diagnosticar os níveis de consciência fonológica e de escrita dos alunos pesquisados e, através da análise, observarmos as dificuldades de escrita apresentadas; na segunda etapa, elaboramos e aplicamos uma proposta de intervenção didática baseada no Pacto Nacional Pela Alfabetização na Idade Certa, PNAIC (BRASIL, 2013), com atividades que promovem o desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica e da escrita; e, na terceira etapa, aplicamos um pós-teste para verificarmos o desempenho dos alunos em relação à aquisição da escrita. Os dados coletados constituíram o corpus da presente pesquisa e os resultados nos permitiram perceber como a relação entre a consciência fonológica e o processo de aquisição da escrita é produtiva para o processo de alfabetização; mas, para isso, é necessário que o ensino priorize uma metodologia que busque proporcionar aos alunos a compreensão do sistema de escrita alfabética, por meio do desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica. Para dar suporte teórico a este trabalho, foram fundamentais os estudos desenvolvidos por: Soares (2003-2014), Cagliari (2009) e Morais (2012), os quais embasaram nossa concepção sobre alfabetização e letramento. Também contribuíram para a compreensão e análise dos dados as reflexões de Alves (2009), Capovilla e Capovilla (2010-2011), Lemle (1991), Morais (2012), Kato (1993) e o PNAIC (BRASIL, 2012-2013) sobre consciência fonológica e língua escrita. A partir dos resultados deste estudo, refletimos sobre a nossa prática de sala de aula, correlacionando os contributos de consciência fonológica e língua escrita para ressignificar o processo de alfabetização.