Phonologic awareness and literacy abilities in nonspeaking preschool children with cerebral palsy

Eight nonspeaking and eight nondisabled preschool children, 5 to 7 years of age, were studied with respect to phonologic abilities and literacy competence. The groups were matched for age and intellectual level. Both groups performed comparably on tests of phonologic awareness. The comparison group, however, scored higher than the disability group on the reading and writing tests, despite equal performance on phonologic tests. This difference between the groups fits with previous findings. On the other hand, it has been shown repeatedly among children without disabilities that phonologic awareness is highly predictive of literacy skills. This did not seem to hold for the nonspeaking children in this study. Explanations of the results were suggested including perceptual/cognitive limitations and limited interaction possibilities with the environment, resulting in limited acquaintance with print in a broad sense.

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