Phonological Awareness of Preschool Children with and without Specific Language Impairment

Kang, Jin Kyung; Kim, Young Tae

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Commun Sci Disord. 2007;12(1): 32-51.

Jin Kyung Kang^` , and Young Tae Kim^`

강진경(Jin Kyung Kang)| 김영태(Young Tae Kim)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the present study was to compare the characteristics of phonological awareness between children with Specific Language Impairment(SLI) and two groups of normal children. The normal two groups consist of one matched by language age(N-LA) and the other by chronological age(N-CA) with the SLI children.
Methods
A total of 45 children(15 SLI, 15 N-LA, and 15 N-CA) participated in the study. The children were given 20 phonological discrimination(i.e., 10 syllable & 10 phoneme) tasks and 28 phonological segmentation(i..e., 14 syllable & 14 phoneme) tasks. One-way ANOVA was used to test for statistically significant differences. Results &
Conclusion
The total score of the phonological awareness tasks of children with SLI was significantly lower than that of the N-CA controls. Additionally, significant differences were found for each type of task(discrimination and segmentation) between the SLI and the N-CA, and between the N-CA and N-LA groups. Significant differences were also found for each type of phonological structure(syllables and phonemes) among all three groups. Finally, significant differences were found between the N-LA and N-CA groups, but not between children with SLI and either control group for either type of phonological place(onset and final places). From the results of the study, we may conclude that SLI children may not display distinct deficits in phonological awareness ability compared with normal children.