Date of Award

4-2013

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

First Advisor

Dr. Ann A. Tyler

Second Advisor

Dr. Karen F. Thomas

Third Advisor

Dr. Laura A. Getty

Keywords

preschool, teacher-delivered, speech/language, phonological awareness

Access Setting

Masters Thesis-Open Access

Abstract

Past and present research demonstrates early reading success related to phonological awareness (PA) instruction conducted individually or in small groups outside of the preschool classroom. This study investigated the effects of an explicit, intensive and teacher-delivered PA instruction for children with speech sound disorder and language impairment as part of the preschool curriculum. The investigator examined the performance of individual cases in both groups, those who received instruction and the control. Two participants in each of the experimental (E1 and E2) and control (C1 and C2) groups had standardized scores indicating deficits in speech and/or language. These children who received the instruction (E1 and E2) showed improvement in PA, but varied in their response to instruction compared to their typically developing peers. Unlike their typically developing peers, the control children (C1 and C2) made no gains but instead declined on PA skills over time. The findings of these case studies contribute to the existing literature by suggesting that an intensive and explicit, teacher-delivered PA instruction has the ability to yield a noticeable effect on PA development of speech and/or language impaired children. Explicit and intensive, teacher-delivered PA instruction should be examined further in experimental studies with larger samples.

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