A Comparison of Phonological Awareness and Reading Ability between Children with and without Functional Articulatory and Phonological Disorders

Koa, Yu Kyong; Kim, Soo-Jin; Koa, Yu Kyong; Kim, Soo-Jin

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2010;15(2): 157-167.

Yu Kyong Koa^` , and Soo-Jin Kim^`

고유경(Yu Kyong Koa)| 김수진(Soo-Jin Kim)

ABSTRACT

Background & Objectives
Our understanding of how phonological awareness and the articulation ability are related to the reading ability has been somewhat vague. The purpose of this study, first of all, is to find out whether differences in phonological awareness and reading skills exist between the children with functional articulation phonological disorder and age matched children without articulation disorder. Secondly the study examines whether any meaningful correlation exists between phonological awareness, reading skills, and articulation capabilities.
Methods
To this end, the study evaluated the phonological awareness-phonemic and syllable levels- and reading skillsword recognition- of 40 children, from ages 5 to 6, half of whom suffered from functional articulation phonological disorder, the other half had normal articulation.
Results
First, the group of children with functional articulation phonological disorder showed meaningful differences in syllable awareness and reading skills compared to the children with normal articulation. However, the two groups were indifferent regarding phonemic awareness, which neither group had yet to sufficiently develop. Second, the study showed that phonological awareness had a meaningful correlation with reading and articulation skills in functional phonological disorders. The reading skill was explained by phonetic awareness with 64% accuracy in functional phonological disorders(R2=.64). In the group of normal articulation, the phonological awareness had a meaningful correlation with only reading skills.
Discussion & Conclusion
It is noteworthy that children with articulation phonological disorder performed well below than normal children in phonological awareness(syllable level) and reading disciplines. While existing research had shown that low phonological awareness could cause reading problems, its correlation with articulation disorder remained inconclusive showing inconsistent results. However, the results of this study show that articulation disorder and phonological awareness are indeed correlated to a certain degree. This study indicates that both phonological awareness and reading development should be taken into consideration when treating preschool children with articulation phonological disorder and low phonological awareness.

Keywords: 기능적 조음음운장애 | 음운인식능력 | 읽기능력 functional articulation phonological disorder | phonological awareness | reading skills