From Phonological Therapy to Phonological Awareness

ABSTRACT

Children with speech difficulties often have delayed phonological awareness development and associated literacy problems. Speech-language pathologists (S-LPs) typically use phonological and articulatory approaches in their treatment of such children. However, it is unclear to what extent phonological awareness training, originally designed to promote literacy skills, might also improve children's speech output. This article adopts a psycholinguistic approach to examine the nature and development of phonological awareness and to explore the relationship between phonological awareness training and phonological therapy. The role of phonological awareness in predicting literacy development in children is discussed, and principles for analyzing the psycholinguistic properties of therapy tasks are presented. Phonological awareness cannot be dealt with independently as it is an integral part of articulation and phonological intervention. Further, phonological awareness is a necessary ``on-line'' skill in the dynamic communication process between therapist and child. Failure to take this into account will result in inappropriately targeted therapy and pragmatic breakdown between the child and S-LP.

KEYWORD

Phonological awareness: development and training - predicting literacy outcome - psycholinguistic perspective - task analysis - child/S-LP interaction

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1 *The NDP is currently being revised by Pam Williams from the Nuffield Hearing and Speech Centre in London. The new version will make more explicit how the materials can be used for input, output, and phonological awareness activities. Links with literacy are also strengthened