This study investigated the effects of an explicit individualized phonemic awareness intervention administered by a speech-language pathologist to 4 prekindergarten children with phonological speech sound disorders. Research has demonstrated that children with moderate-severe expressive phonological disorders are at-risk for poor literacy development because they often concurrently exhibit weaknesses in the development of phonological awareness skills (Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). The research design chosen for this study was a single subject multiple probe design across subjects. After stable baseline measures, the participants received explicit instruction in each of the three phases separately and sequentially. Dependent measures included same-day tests for Phase I (Phoneme Identity), Phase II (Phoneme Blending), and Phase III (Phoneme Segmentation), and generalization and maintenance tests for all three phases. All 4 participants made substantial progress in all three phases. These skills were maintained during weekly and biweekly maintenance measures. Generalization measures indicated that the participants demonstrated some increases in their mean total number of correct responses in Phase II and Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase I intervention, and more substantial increases in Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase II intervention. Increased generalization from Phases II to III could likely be explained due to the response similarities in those two skills (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Based upon the findings of this study, speech-language pathologists should evaluate phonological awareness in the children in their caseloads prior to kindergarten entry, and should allocate time during speech therapy to enhance phonological awareness and letter knowledge to support the development of both skills concurrently. Also, classroom teachers should collaborate with speech-language pathologists to identify at-risk students in their classrooms and successfully implement evidence-based phonemic awareness instruction. Future research should repeat this study including larger groups of children, children with combined speech and language delays, children of different ages, and ESOL students

The diploma thesis deals with the issue of phonological abilities of children with dyslalia in preschool age. The main goal of the thesis lies therefore in the analysis of the phonological abilities of the stated target group. Based on the main goal, partial objectives and research questions were defined. A method of qualitative research strategy - a case study was used to fulfil the objectives of the thesis. To gather the data, test methods and analysis of the available documents were used. To create a comprehensive picture of the monitored children, the methods mentioned above were supplemented with an interview with a clinical speech therapist. The thesis is divided into two parts, the theoretical part and the empirical part. The theoretical part consists of three chapters. The first chapter deals with the definition of key terms such as communication, communication skills, as well as the development of speech, language and communication. In this chapter, attention is paid also to a preschool child. The second chapter describes the issue of phonological abilities, which are presented in the context of the phonetic- phonological language level. The last chapter looks into the issue of dyslalia. The empirical part is then devoted to the description of the whole process of the research survey....

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Reading skills are critically important for a child’s development and continued growth in school. The home and school literacy experiences of children who have developmental disabilities have been found to be qualitatively different from the experiences of their same age peers without disabilities. In addition to access to instruction, a number of intrinsic factors including cognitive ability, receptive language and expressive speech skills have been suggested as factors that may place children with developmental disabilities at a greater risk for limited development of reading skills. Currently, little is understood about how children who have developmental disabilities and may have limitations in productive speech learn to read. This study identifies key intrinsic and extrinsic factors that are related to the development of phonological awareness in 42 children between 4 years and 5 years 9 months of age with developmental disabilities and a range of speech abilities. Aims of this project were to 1- systematically assess children’s intrinsic factors of speech ability, receptive and expressive language and vocabulary, cognitive skills and phonological awareness to determine key intrinsic factors related to phonological awareness and 2- describe the extrinsic factors of home literacy experience and preschool literacy instruction provided to children. Children were found to have frequent and positive home literacy experiences. No significant correlations between speech ability and frequency of shared reading experiences were found. Parents reported low levels of preschool literacy instruction. Significant correlations were found between instruction in decoding and word recognition and children’s sound-symbol awareness. Correlations were found between the use of technology and media and Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and children’s speech ability. Positive, significant relationships were found between phonological awareness and all direct assessment measures of developmental skill, speech ability and early reading skills but were not found between phonological awareness and home or school literacy experiences. Speech ability did not predict a significant amount of variance in phonological awareness skill beyond what would be expected by cognitive development, receptive language and orthographic knowledge. This study provides important implications for practitioners and researchers alike concerning the factors related to early reading development in children with limited speech ability.

Naming speed (NS) tasks that measure how quickly and accurately participants can name visual stimuli (e.g., letters) are commonly used to predict reading ability. However, the link between NS and reading is poorly understood. Three methods were used to investigate how NS relates to reading and what cognitive processes are involved: (a) changing stimulus composition to emphasize phonological and/or visual aspects (Compton, 2003); (b) decomposing NS times into pause and articulation components; and (c) analyzing eye movements during a NS task. Participants were in three groups: dyslexics (aged 9, 10), chronological-age (CA) controls (age 9, 10), and reading-level (RL) controls (aged 6, 7). We used a letter NS task and three variants that were either phonologically and/or visually confusing while subjects’ eye movements and articulations were recorded, and examined how these manipulations influenced NS performance and eye movements. For all groups, NS manipulations were associated with specific patterns of behaviour and saccadic performance, reflecting differential contributions of NS to reading. RL controls were less efficient, made more errors, saccades and regressions, and made longer fixation durations, articulation times, and pause times than CA controls. Dyslexics consistently scored in between controls, except for the number of saccades and regressions in which they made more than both control groups. Overall there were clear developmental changes in NS performance, NS components, and eye movements in controls from ages 6 to 10 that appear to occur more slowly for dyslexics. Furthermore, pause time and fixation duration were key features in the NS-reading relationship, and increasing visual similarity of the letter matrix had the greatest effect on performance for all subjects. This latter result was demonstrated by the decrease in efficiency and eye-voice span, increase in naming errors, saccades, and regressions, and longer pause times and fixation durations found for all subjects. We conclude that NS is related to reading via fixation durations and pause times; longer fixation durations reflect the greater amount of time needed to acquire visual/orthographic information from stimuli, and longer pause times in children with dyslexia reflect the greater amount of time needed to prepare to respond to stimuli. / Thesis (Master, Neuroscience Studies) -- Queen's University, 2013-09-26 12:24:53.951

There is agreement among researchers that phonological awareness deficits are one of the main causes of dyslexia. Some researchers support the view that phonological awareness can be improved by teaching reading through a topdown approach (whole word) or a bottom-up approach (grapheme-phoneme); others claim that the combination of these two complementary approaches is more successful. The goal of this research combined reading intervention programme was to enhance the six 'dyslexic students' phonological awareness and to improve their reading in English in the inclusive English as a foreign language classroom. The research studied the effects the reading intervention programme, which systematically combines the two complementary approaches for the same duration of time in each session, had on the six Israeli research 'dyslexic students'. The present study is an inductive action research applying a case study design using qualitative research tools. Data from in-depth pre- and post-intervention interviews is triangulated with the participants' diaries, the practitioner's journal and the documentation of the pre- and post-intervention participants' assessments. Thematic data analysis indicated an improvement in the participants' phonological awareness, reading in English and functioning in the inclusive EFL classroom as a result of the combined reading intervention programme. The contribution to knowledge points to the fact that while a four-month cognitive intervention programme with 'dyslexic students' in Israel, studying English as a foreign language may improve students' cognitive functioning in English, it is insufficient in enabling students to allay their fears regarding the expectations of Israeli society, and their ability to succeed in life. Propositions suggest conducting a further action research study which examines the implementation of an additional emotional intervention to the cognitive one. The development of the emotional intervention will enable evaluation of the effects of a combined programme on 'dyslexic students' in Israel.

The Phonic Inventories are an instrument consisting of three spelling tests. This study explored the potential of this instrument to be used in group administration to identify children with potential learning difficulties. This was done with a sample of full-time mainstream and full-time remedial learners. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to establish if the Phonic Inventories could distinguish the spelling error patterns of learners in different grades for mainstream and remedial. A distinct pattern of key errors was found, which was similar for mainstream and remedial learners. There were performance changes over grade for mainstream learners but not for remedial learners. This suggests the Phonic Inventories may be measuring an underlying spelling ability which progresses in normal learners and not remedial learners. A stepwise regression analysis was used to establish whether the Phonic Inventories predict performance on contrast spelling tests. A good degree of fit was found between the tests, suggesting the Phonic Inventories are measuring the same abilities as other spelling tests, with the advantage of providing additional information. Finally, a discriminant analysis found errors made on the Phonic Inventories to predict group affiliation between the mainstream and remedial group to a good degree. It was concluded that the Phonic Inventories have strong potential as a group administered screening instrument for identifying children with potential learning difficulties.

Estudos a respeito das dificuldades de aprendizagem tem se tornado o foco de pesquisas nacionais e internacionais. Destacam-se, principalmente, aqueles que priorizam os aspectos da intervenção, pois são notáveis os progressos acadêmicos, emocionais e sociais dos indivíduos com dificuldades de leitura e escrita. Com relação às dificuldades de aprendizagem e as dificuldades escolares, a literatura revela a necessidade da identificação precoce e propõe programas de remediação fonológica que têm como objetivo treinar as habilidades metalinguísticas e o ensino da relação letra-som, necessários para a aprendizagem do sistema de escrita. Alguns autores propõem intervenções por meio de treino computadorizado, outros autores, além do treino, propõem a associação do mesmo a atividades de leitura e escrita. Considerando o exposto, o objetivo deste estudo foi verificar os efeitos de um programa de remediação fonológica, associado a atividades de leitura e escrita, dentro do processo de alfabetização e letramento em alunos com dificuldades de aprendizagem, que frequentam uma sala de recursos multifuncionais. Foram selecionados 10 alunos na faixa etária entre 7 e 11 anos de idade, de ambos os gêneros, com dificuldades de aprendizagem, participantes de uma sala de recursos multifuncionais. Os participantes foram divididos em 2 grupos: Grupo Experimental (6 alunos) e Grupo Comparativo (4 alunos). O GE foi submetido ao programa de remediação fonológica a fim de comparar os resultados da aplicação do programa aos alunos do GC, que inicialmente não receberam a intervenção. Foram realizadas avaliação pré e pós ao programa a fim de verificar o desempenho dos participantes nas habilidades do processamento fonológico, leitura e escrita, memória auditiva e visual. Os atendimentos foram em grupos de 3 alunos, realizados uma vez por semana, com duração de 50 minutos. Os resultados revelaram que o desempenho do grupo submetido ao programa foi superior ao do grupo não submetido. Observou-se que a remediação fonológica, associada a atividades de leitura e escrita, promoveu melhoras nas habilidades de leitura e escrita em alunos com dificuldades de aprendizagem das salas de recursos multifuncionais. / Studies on learning difficulties have become the focus of national and international research. Of particular note are those who prioritize aspects of the intervention, since the academic, emotional and social progress of individuals with reading and writing difficulties is remarkable. With regard to learning difficulties and school difficulties, the literature reveals the need for early identification and proposes phonological remediation programs that aim to train the metalinguistic abilities and the teaching of the letter-sound relationship, necessary for the learning of the writing system. Some authors propose interventions through computerized training, other authors, besides the training, propose the association of the same to activities of reading and writing. Considering the above, the objective of this study was to verify the effects of a phonological remediation program, associated to reading and writing activities, within the process of literacy in students with learning disabilities, attending a multifunctional resource classroom. We selected 10 students aged 7 to 11 years of age, of both genders, with learning difficulties, participants of a multifunctional resource room. Participants were divided into 2 groups: Experimental Group (6 students) and Comparative Group (4 students). The EG was submitted to the phonological remediation program in order to compare the results of the application of the program to CG students, who did not initially receive the intervention. Pre and post evaluation of the program were carried out to verify the performance of participants in the phonological processing, reading and writing skills, auditory and visual memory. The visits were in groups of 3 students, held once a week, lasting 50 minutes. The results showed that the performance of the group submitted to the program was superior to that of the group not submitted. It was observed that phonological remediation, associated with reading and writing activities, promoted improvements in reading and writing skills in students with learning difficulties in multifunctional resource rooms.

Repeating a word or nonword requires a speaker to map auditory representations of incoming sounds onto learned speech items, maintain those items in short-term memory, interface that representation with the motor output system, and articulate the target sounds. This dissertation seeks to clarify the nature and neuroanatomical localization of speech sound representations in perception and production through multivariate analysis of neuroimaging data. The major portion of this dissertation describes two experiments using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure responses to the perception and overt production of syllables and multivariate pattern analysis to localize brain areas containing associated phonological/phonetic information. The first experiment used a delayed repetition task to permit response estimation for auditory syllable presentation (input) and overt production (output) in individual trials. In input responses, clusters sensitive to vowel identity were found in left inferior frontal sulcus (IFs), while clusters responsive to syllable identity were found in left ventral premotor cortex and left mid superior temporal sulcus (STs). Output-linked responses revealed clusters of vowel information bilaterally in mid/posterior STs. The second experiment was designed to dissociate the phonological content of the auditory stimulus and vocal target. Subjects were visually presented with two (non)word syllables simultaneously, then aurally presented with one of the syllables. A visual cue informed subjects either to repeat the heard syllable (repeat trials) or produce the unheard, visually presented syllable (change trials). Results suggest both IFs and STs represent heard syllables; on change trials, representations in frontal areas, but not STs, are updated to reflect the vocal target. Vowel identity covaries with formant frequencies, inviting the question of whether lower-level, auditory representations can support vowel classification in fMRI. The final portion of this work describes a simulation study, in which artificial fMRI datasets were constructed to mimic the overall design of Experiment 1 with voxels assumed to contain either discrete (categorical) or analog (frequency-based) vowel representations. The accuracy of classification models was characterized by type of representation and the density and strength of responsive voxels. It was shown that classification is more sensitive to sparse, discrete representations than dense analog representations.

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of phonological awareness (PA) training with typically developing preschool children in a classroom setting. The PA training incorporated a range of PA skills and the training outcomes were assessed along a broad spectrum of PA abilities, pre-literacy skills, and general language abilities. This study consisted of 21 children (11 Experimental, 10 Control). The classroom PA training program was conducted with the Experimental class in one large group for 5 weeks with 20 minute sessions conducted three times a week. A variety of fun, play-based PA activities were used with the class that incorporated the spectrum of PA skills. No main effects were observed for any of the test measures, with the exception of the Experimental group’s statistically significant gains for total number of words, number of different words, and a negative effect on the Phonological Awareness Literacy-Pre-Kindergarten