Training in Phonological AwarenessGeneralizes to Phonological Working Memory: A Preliminary Investigation

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal ofSpeech-Language Pathology – Applied Behavior Analysis

Volume

1

Publication Date

2006

First Page

228

Last Page

243

Abstract

Early reading achievement relies on phonological awareness (PA) and phonological working memory (WM). Children with language impairment (LI) have problems with both. Three studies were conducted to determine whether treating PA would also improve phonological WM in preschoolers with LI. Study 1 confirmed that children with specific LI perform more poorly than age-matched peers on both PA and WM tasks. Study 2 showed that when children with and without LI are matched on a nonword WM task, differences between the groups on PA and on a word WM task are no longer statistically significant. In Study 3, sixteen preschool children with LI received intervention targeting PA skills and improved both their PA and WM abilities. These studies support the use of PA instruction to improve basic phonological mechanisms underlying working memory.

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