Profiles Of Phonological Awareness Skills In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Language Impairment, And Their Typically Developing Peers

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the profiles of phonological awareness skills in young children with autism spectrum disorders, language impairment, and their typically developing peers. 29 age-matched TD, 18 children in the group of children with ASD, and 14 children with LI are the participants in this study. To achieve the goal of this study, mean [Standard Deviation], ANOVA, and multiple comparisons were used. Each PA task comprised 5 test items. All words that composed the PA tasks are familiar to and commonly used among young children. The PA tasks here were chosen according to variations in the phonological unit involved (rhymes, syllables, and phonemes) and their cognitive demand (detection of similarities or differences, segmentation, blending, and elision). Children with ASD and LI score below TD children in all PA tasks (Rhyme detection task, Syllable blending task, Syllable segmentation task, Phoneme blending task, Phoneme elision task). There are statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level in the total score of PA that can be attributed to the type of group. The difference is in favor of TD children.