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

Dell (1986) presented a spreading activation model which accounted for a number of early speech error results, including the relative proportions of anticipations, perseverations and exchanges found in speech error corpora, the lexical bias effect, the phonological similarity effect, and the effect of speech rate on error rate. This model has had an immense influence on the past 20 years of research into word production, with the original paper being cited over 1,000 times. Many studies have questioned how activation should flow between words and phonemes in this model. This thesis aimed to clarify what current speech error evidence tells us about how activation flows between phonemes and subphonemic representations, like features. Does activation cascade from phonemes to features, and does it feed back? The work presented here extends previous modelling investigations in two ways. Firstly, whereas previous modelling research has tended to evaluate model behaviour using arbitrarily chosen parameter settings, we illuminate the influence of the parameters on model behaviour and propose methods to draw general conclusions about model behaviour from large numbers of simulations at orthogonally varied parameter settings. Secondly, we extend the scope of the simulations to consider output at a subphonemic level, modelling recent data acquired via acoustic and articulatory measurements, such as voicing onset time (VOT), electropalatography (EPG) and ultrasound, alongside older transcribed speech error data. Throughout the thesis, we consider whether parameter settings which lead the model to capture individual results also permit other results to be accounted for and do not cause otherwise implausible behaviour. Through manipulating parameter settings in Dell's (1986) original model, we find that increasing the number of steps before selection generally does not decrease the error rate, but rather increases it, contrary to results reported by Dell (1986). This calls into question the claim that an increase in steps before selection provides a good model of a slower speech rate. We also demonstrate that the model captures the negative correlation reported by Dell, Burger, and Svec (1997) between error rate and the ratio of anticipations to perseverations, and further predicts that there should be a negative correlation between this ratio and the proportion of errors which are non-contextual. However, our results show that no parameter setting allows the model to generate enough exchanges to match even minimum estimates from a reanalysis of multiple speech error corpus reports, without falling foul of other constraints; in particular, limits on the overall number of errors generated. We suggest that the exchange completion triggering mechanism proposed by Dell (1986) is not strong enough, and that current corpus evidence provides little support for his account of word sequencing. Focusing on single word production therefore, the second part of the thesis investigates behaviour of models with output at a subphonemic level. We find that, provided sufficient contextual errors occur at the featural level, a model in which only the identity of the selected phoneme is conveyed to the featural level can account for: (i) the phonological similarity effect found in transcribed records of speech errors (whereas in models with output at the phoneme level, feedback from features to phonemes is required); (ii) detectable influences of intended phonemes in VOT measurements of unintended phonemes, as well as the effect of error outcome lexicality on these results ( findings presented in support of cascading from phonemes by Goldrick & Blumstein, 2006); and (iii) increased similarity of EPG measurements of articulations to reference measurements of competing articulations when production of the competing onset would result in a word (McMillan, Corley, & Lickley, 2009). Initial results appear to con firm however that, in contrast, phonological similarity effects on the relationship of articulatory and acoustic measurements of productions to reference measurements (McMillan, 2008) can only be accounted for in an architecture with feedback from features to phonemes. To strengthen conclusions about articulatory evidence of lexical bias and phonological similarity effects, future work needs to consider the extremely strong effects of frequency observed in these simulations. The results presented in this thesis contribute to a greater comprehension of the behaviour of Dell's (1986) influential model, and further demonstrate that the model can be extended to account for new instrumental evidence, whilst clarifying the constraints on activation flow between phonemes and features which this new evidence imposes.

The aim of the present thesis was to examine possible cognitive consequences of acquired hearing loss and the possible impact of these cognitive consequences on the ability to process spoken language presented through visual speechreading or through a cochlear implant. The main findings of the present thesis can be summarised in the following conclusions: (a) The phonological processing capabilities of individuals who have acquired a severe hearing loss or deafness deteriorate progressively as a function of number of years with a complete or partial auditory deprivation. (b) The observed phonological deterioration is restricted to certain aspects of the phonological system. Specifically, the phonological representations of words in the mental lexicon are of less good quality, whereas the phonological system in verbal working memory is preserved. (c) The deterioration of the phonological representations has a negative effect on the individual's ability to process speech, either presented visually (i.e., speechreading) or through a cochlear implant, as it may impair word recognition processes which involve activation of and discrimination between the phonological representations in the lexicon. (d) Thus, the present research describes an acquired cognitive disability not previously documented in the literature, and contributes to the context of other populations with phonological disabilities by showing that a complete or partial deprivation of auditory speech stimulation in adulthood can give rise to a phonological disability. (e) From a clinical point of view, the results from the present thesis suggest that early cochlear implantation after the onset of an acquired severe hearing loss is an important objective in order to reach a high level of speech understanding with the implant.

The present study investigates if intense training with the PhonicStick, a speech generating joystick developed originally as a communication device, has an effect on phonological ability in children with an atypical language development. Previous studies connected to the PhonicStick and phonological ability has not shown any improvement of phonological awareness due to training with the device. What is unique in the present study is the amount of intense training with the PhonicStick, something that has never been done before, as well as the focus on phonological ability instead of phonological awareness. The study consists of nine participating children between 4y;0m to 5y;7m of age, six of them diagnosed with an atypical language development by a speech and language pathologist, and three of them considered to follow a typical language development. Results indicate that intense training with the PhonicStick combined with conventional speech and language interventions may have an effect regarding phonological ability in children with an atypical language development on an individual level. Key words: The PhonicStick, phonological ability, atypical language development, intense training. / Syftet med den aktuella studien var att undersöka huruvida intensiv träning med the PhonicStick, en talgenererande joystick ursprungligen framtagen som ett kommunikationshjälpmedel, har en påverkan på fonologisk medvetenhet beträffande barn med en atypisk språklig utveckling. Tidigare studier gällande the PhonicStick och fonologisk förmåga har inte visat på någon förbättring gällande fonologisk medvetenhet genom träning med apparaten. Unikt för denna studie är mängden intensiv träning med the PhonicStick, samt att fokus ligger på fonologisk förmåga istället för fonologisk medvetenhet. I studien deltog nio barn i åldrarna 4;0 till 5;7 år. Sex av barnen har tidigare diagnosticerats av legitimerad logoped att ha en atypisk språklig utveckling. Tre av de deltagande barnen har bedömts följa en typisk språklig utveckling. Studiens resultat indikerar att intensiv träning med the PhonicStick, kombinerat med sedvanliga logopediska insatser, kan ha effekt gällande fonologisk förmåga hos barn med atypisk språkutveckling på individnivå. Nyckelord: The PhonicStick, fonologisk förmåga, atypisk språkutveckling, intensiv träning.

Programs to support early literacy development are implemented regularly in the schools without research on their efficacy. This study examined the efficacy of a commonly used program for struggling readers. Twelve kindergarten children who were at-risk for reading difficulties took part in a 10 week intervention program called Talking Tables. Twelve kindergarten children, also at-risk for reading difficulties were the control group, and received no intervention. The children in the intervention group made significant gains in phonological awareness. The results suggest that the Talking Tables is effective as an early intervention in developing phonological awareness skills in kindergarten children that are at-risk for reading difficulties. / Graduate / 0535

Deficiencies in mathematics skill constrain students’ educational achievement and subsequently, their employment outcomes. This study included 265 school-identified students with mild intellectual disabilities. The research questions investigated the extent to which phonological awareness, color naming speed, and vocabulary knowledge, was related to mathematics skill after controlling for grade level via regression analyses. Further, the mediating effects of expressive vocabulary on the relationship between receptive vocabulary and mathematics skill as well as the indirect effect of receptive vocabulary knowledge on mathematics skill through expressive vocabulary were examined. The findings indicated that after controlling for grade level, phonological awareness, naming speed, and vocabulary knowledge were significantly related to mathematics skill. The mediating effects of expressive vocabulary as well as the indirect effects of receptive vocabulary knowledge on mathematics skill were also significant.

Föreliggande examensarbete bygger på en enkätundersökning bland pedagoger som är verksamma inom förskolor med olika pedagogiska inriktningar i två kommuner. De tre inriktningarna representeras av förskolepedagoger, som enbart arbetar utifrån förskolans läroplan, Montessorilärare samt pedagoger som arbetar utifrån Reggio Emiliafilosofin. Vår undersökning visar att en hel del lärare, som är verksamma inom samtliga inriktningar, framför allt arbetar med såväl planerade som spontana språklekar som rör rim, ramsor samt stavelser. Färre pedagoger arbetar med språklekar som rör enskilda språkljud i ord, vilket är mer abstrakt och kommer senare i utvecklingen av den fonologiska medvetenheten.  Vid en jämförelse mellan de olika inriktningarna kan vi skönja, att flest Montessorilärare arbetar med språklekar som rör språkljud på förskolorna. Färst pedagoger som arbetar med dessa lekar är verksamma på de förskolor, där lärarna arbetar utifrån Reggio Emiliafilosofin.

I investigate the phonology of prosodic clitics--independent syntactic words not parsed as independent prosodic words--in Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian. I ask, first, how clitics are organized into prosodic structures, and second, how this is determined by the grammar. Following Zec (1997, 2005), I look at several clitic categories, including negation, prepositions, complementizers, conjunctions, and second-position clitics. Based on a reanalysis of word accent (Browne and McCawley 1965, Inkelas and Zec 1988, Zec 1999), I argue that in some cases where a preposition, complementizer, or conjunction fails to realize accent determined by a following word, it is not a proclitic-- that is, prosodified with the following word--but rather a free clitic parsed directly by a phonological phrase. Conversely, the second-position clitics are not always enclitic--that is, prosodified with a preceding word--but are sometimes free. Their second-position word order results not from enclisis, but from the avoidance of free clitics at phrase edges, where they would interfere with the alignment of phonological phrases to prosodic words. Regarding the determination of clisis by the grammar, I argue for an interface constraint approach (Selkirk 1995, Truckenbrodt 1995), whereby prosodic structures are built according to general constraints on their well-formedness, and on their interface to syntactic structures. I contrast this with the subcategorization approach , which sees clisis as specified for each clitic (Klavans 1982, Radanovic-Kocic 1988, Zec and Inkelas 1990). The comparison across clitic categories provides key support for the interface constraint approach, showing that their prosody depends on their syntactic configurations and phonological shapes, rather than on arbitrary subcategorizations. Prosodic differences across categories are a derivative effect of their configuration in the clause, and of the division of the clause into phonological phrases. The relevance of phonological phrases consists in how their edges discourage some kinds of clisis, blocking, for example, proclisis of complementizers and conjunctions to their complements. Free clisis is disfavored at phrase edges, producing the second-position effect. Thus, the interface constraint approach leads to a unified account of word, phrase, and clitic prosody.

国立情報学研究所で電子化したコンテンツを使用している。