preview

Phonological Awareness

Better Essays

Phonological Awareness in Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children: A Literature Review
Even though advanced cochlear implant (CI) and hearing aid (HA) technology is making tremendous strides in the DHH community, these hearing devices still cannot completely restore normal hearing or fully represent all aspects of normal speech sounds. Therefore, children within this population are potentially at a higher risk for speech disorders, speech delays, or language difficulties. The acquisition of phonological awareness (PA) and PA abilities is an important developmental step in speech and language. Moreover, PA skills have been shown to significantly affect early literacy abilities in normal hearing children. PA is commonly defined as the conscious ability …show more content…

Their main goal was to gain a better understanding of the phonological structure and representation of DHH children who use CIs or HAs, which will ultimately improve the identification and habilitation of at risk children. In the studies included in this literature review, PA was found to be an indicator of early literacy abilities, PA was found to be related to other areas, most importantly vocabulary, and researchers agree that more studies should be conducted to identify techniques and strategies that explicitly target PA in DHH youth. The majority of these studies comprise similar limitations, such as small sample sizes. PA is beneficial for normal hearing and DHH children alike in relation to their literacy …show more content…

(2011), and Johnson and Goswami (2010) all provide evidence that PA is an indicator of early literacy abilities in the DHH population. Cupples et al. (2014) controlled for many variables such as receptive language, nonverbal cognitive ability, and various relevant demographic variables. Researchers from this study found that the relationship between PA is associated with early reading skills, but not other academic areas, specifically, math reasoning. This is important to note because it shows the direct and distinct correlation between PA and reading. Moreover, Dillon et al. (2011) found a strong correlation between the children’s reading scores and their PA abilities demonstrated by LAC3, PIAT Reading Recognition, PIAT Reading Comprehension, PIAT Total Reading, WRMT-WA, and PPVT test scores and their equivalent scores comparatively. Furthermore, Johnson and Goswami (2010) conclude that their participant’s reading development, measured by reading standard and quotient scores, was significantly linked to PA. If taken as truth, these results have considerable implications to Communication Sciences and Disorders as well as the DHH population because they outline a clear approach to the prevention and treatment of early literacy

Get Access