The purposes of this study were to determine which perinatal risk variables arecorrelated with phonological disorders and to determine how preschoolers' developmental functioning is related to phonological impairment. Subjects were 101 low SES boys (n=46) and girls (n=55) randomly selected from a county Head Start program in north-central Indiana. The mean age of the preschoolers was 65 months. Information about perinatal risks and developmental abilities was obtained from mothers or primary caregivers. Using the Maternal Perinatal Scale (Dean, 1985) and the Bankson Bernthal Test of Phonology (Bankson & Bernthal, 1990), it was found that three moderate inverse correlations existed between perinatal risk items and phonological scores (mothers' weight before pregnancy, the number of pregnancies prior to the birth of the child that resulted in death, and the number of medical conditions experienced by mothers before or during pregnancy). Hierarchical multiple regressions indicated that developmental scales of the Minnesota Preschool Inventory (Ireton & Thwing, 1979) significantly accounted for phonological ability in these children, with the scales of Letter Recognition, Self-Help, Expressive Language, and Fine Motor contributing the most unique variance. Implications of these findings are discussed relative to the developmental apraxia of speech debate. / Department of Educational Psychology

This study investigated the phonological awareness abilities of children who were typical and atypical. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether there were developmental differences in the phonological awareness abilities (i.e., syllable, onset/rime, phonemes) of the two groups of participants through a sound segmentation task. The participants were arranged into preschool, kindergarten, and first grade groups. Stimuli included one and two syllable words, which were originally used by Treiman and Zukowski (1991) when they investigated the sound segmentation abilities of typical children. As part of the sound segmentation task, participants were asked to listen to a pair of words and indicate if the one and two syllable words had any sounds in common, either at the phoneme, onset/rime, or syllable levels.An analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed and results revealed a significant difference between children who were typical and children that were specific language impaired (SLI) on segmenting. The children who were typical were more effective at segmenting than children who were SLI. Results also revealed that there was a significant different between the first grade children and the preschool children in both groups to segment words at all three conditions. Significant differences were also noted between the types of phonological task completed among participants. The phoneme task was significantly different than the onset/rime and syllable tasks. Also, the onset/rime task was significantly different that the phoneme and syllable task.The combined data from this study revealed developmental trends in phonological awareness for the typical population. However, the developmental trend was not observed in the SLI population. It was noted that the typical population was more efficient in segmentation of words than the SLI population.The data that were obtained provides additional information on the phonological awareness development in typical children and children with SLI. The data may also assist researchers and clinicians in the identification and treatment of children with language impairments. The results may also provide researchers and practitioners important insight into literacy development, given the strong correlation between sound segmentation and the ability to read and write. / Department of Special Education

Thesis (M.S.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-57). Also available online.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1928. / Vita. Published also as Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to education, no. 314. Bibliography: p. 59.

Thesis (master's)--Duquesne University, 2003. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 32-33) and abstract.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2004. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138-150).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1928. / Vita. Published also as Teachers College, Columbia University, Contributions to education, no. 314. Bibliography: p. 59.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1984. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 143-154).

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1994. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), the University of Hong Kong, 29th, April, 1994." Also available in print.

Thesis (B.Sc)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / "A dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Science (Speech and Hearing Sciences), The University of Hong Kong, April 28, 1995." Also available in print.