Phoneme Representation and Articulatory Impairment: Insights from Adults with Comorbid Motor Coordination Disorder and Dyslexia

Phonemic processing skills are impaired both in children and adults with dyslexia. Since phoneme representation development is based on articulatory gestures, it is likely that these gestures influence oral reading-related skills as assessed through phonemic awareness tasks. In our study, fifty-two young dyslexic adults, with and without motor impairment, and fifty-nine skilled readers performed reading, phonemic awareness, and articulatory tasks. The two dyslexic groups exhibited slower articulatory rates than skilled readers and the comorbid dyslexic group presenting with an additional difficulty in respiratory control (reduced speech proportion and increased pause duration). Two versions of the phoneme awareness task (PAT) with pseudoword strings were administered: a classical version under time pressure and a delayed version in which access to phonemic representations and articulatory programs was facilitated. The two groups with dyslexia were outperformed by the control group in both versions. Although the two groups with dyslexia performed equally well on the classical PAT, the comorbid group performed significantly less efficiently on the delayed PAT, suggesting an additional contribution of articulatory impairment in the task for this group. Overall, our results suggest that impaired phoneme representations in dyslexia may be explained, at least partially, by articulatory deficits affecting access to them.

Coupling Articulatory Placement Strategies With Phonemic Awareness Instruction to Support Emergent Literacy Skills in Preschool Children: A Collaborative Approach

Purpose The merits of collaboration between teachers and speech-language pathologists have been extensively highlighted in literature on multitiered educational frameworks. Studies also illustrate the link between articulation, phonemic awareness, and, ultimately, reading skills. This article describes the impact of an intervention targeting articulation and phonemic awareness provided collaboratively to preschool children to enhance emergent literacy skills with the long-term goal of preventing later reading difficulties. Method This pilot study involved a bidirectional collaboration between a speech-language pathologist and a teacher by providing articulatory placement strategies to link accurate speech production with early phonemic awareness activities in the context of a private early childhood center. Seventeen children (N = 17) participated in the study, with ages ranging from 55 to 65 months. Results The results indicated significant differences in phonemic segmentation as well as reading phonemically spelled words and nonwords when comparing the baseline to the collaboratively based articulatory placement plus phonemic awareness intervention. Significant differences were also seen when comparing the traditional literacy program to the collaboratively based articulatory placement plus phonemic awareness intervention. Conclusions The results suggest there may be a benefit to using articulatory placement strategies with phonemic awareness activities directly in the preschool classroom in collaboration with teachers. This pilot study adds to the literature by transferring principles demonstrated as effective for individual children in the research laboratory to application with a whole class in an authentic setting.

Developmental trajectories of writing skills in first grade: Examining the effects of SES and language and/or speech impairments

We examined growth trajectories of writing and the relation of children's socio-economic status, and language and/or speech impairment to the growth trajectories. First grade children (N = 304) were assessed on their written composition in the fall, winter, and spring, and their vocabulary and literacy skills in the fall. Children's SES had a negative effect on writing quality and productivity. Children with language and/or speech impairment had lower scores than typically developing children in the quality and productivity of writing. Even after accounting for their vocabulary and literacy skills, students with language and/or speech impairment had lower scores in the quality and organization of writing. Growth rates in writing were not different as a function of children's SES and language/speech impairment status. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The Cognitive Development of Young Dual Language Learners: A Critical Review

Dual language exposure and bilingualism are relatively common experiences for children. The present review set out to synthesize the existing research on cognitive development in bilingual children and to identify the gaps and the methodological concerns present in the existing research. A search of major data bases for research conducted with typically-developing, preschool-age dual language learners between 2000-2013 yielded 102 peer-reviewed articles. The existing evidence points to areas of cognitive development in bilingual children where findings are robust or inconclusive, and reveals variables that influence performance. The present review also identifies areas for future research and methodological limitations.

What factors place children with speech sound disorders at risk for reading problems?

PURPOSE

To identify weaknesses in print awareness and phonological processing that place children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) at increased risk for reading difficulties.

METHOD

Language, literacy, and phonological skills of 3 groups of preschool-age children were compared: a group of 68 children with SSDs, a group of 68 peers with normal speech matched on receptive vocabulary, and a group of 68 peers with normal speech and language.

RESULTS

The SSD group demonstrated impairments in expressive phonological awareness (ts = 3.45 to 8.17, ps < .001, effect size [ES] = 0.51 to 1.04), receptive phonological awareness (zs = 2.26 to 5.21, ps ≤ .02, ES = 0.39 to 0.79), accessing phonological representations (zs = 3.34 to 5.83, ps < .001, ES = 0.59 to 0.91), quality of phonological representations (zs = 2.35 to 13.11, ps ≤ .02, ES = 0.44 to 1.56), and word reading (ts = 2.48 to 4.42, ps ≤ .01, ES = 0.22 to 0.54). Analyses of covariance found that lower performances of the SSD group on tests of phonological awareness and word reading could be explained by their weaknesses in quality and accessibility of phonological representations.

CONCLUSIONS

The present study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature as the first study, to our knowledge, that has tested the hypothesis that weaknesses in representation-related phonological processing may underlie the difficulties in phonological awareness and reading that are demonstrated by children with SSDs.

Early oral language markers of poor reading performance in Hong Kong Chinese children

This study investigated the extent to which language skills at ages 2 to 4 years could discriminate Hong Kong Chinese poor from adequate readers at age 7. Selected were 41 poor readers (age M = 87.6 months) and 41 adequate readers (age M = 88.3 months). The two groups were matched on age, parents' education levels, and nonverbal intelligence. The following language tasks were tested at different ages: vocabulary checklist and Cantonese articulation test at age 2; nonword repetition, Cantonese articulation, and receptive grammar at age 3; and nonword repetition, receptive grammar, sentence imitation, and story comprehension at age 4. Significant differences between the poor and adequate readers were found in the age 2 vocabulary knowledge, age 3 Cantonese articulation, and age 4 receptive grammar skill, sentence imitation, and story comprehension. Among these measures, sentence imitation showed the greatest power in discriminating poor and adequate readers.