Seki Ayumi, Kassai Kazumi, Uchiyama Hitoshi, Koeda Tatsuya
Department of Education, Faculty of Regional Sciences, Tottori University, 4-101, Koyama Minami, Tottori 680-8551, Japan.
Brain Dev. 2008 Mar;30(3):179-88. doi: 10.1016/j.braindev.2007.07.006. Epub 2007 Aug 27.
In alphabetic languages, the deficit of the phonological awareness is considered as the core deficit in developmental dyslexia. However, the role of phonological awareness in the acquisition of reading Japanese kana, the transparent, mora-based phonogram, has not been understood completely. We examine the abilities of Japanese dyslexic children on different types of Japanese phonological tasks, and discussed which tasks significantly account for each aspect of reading ability.
Fifteen dyslexic children (9.53+/-1.52 years old), and 15 children with normal reading ability (9.17+/-0.90 years old) participated in this study. They performed three types of phonological awareness tasks. The mora counting task and the mora reversal task of words require phonological awareness at the mora level. The letter rhyming task, which resembles the task in English language, requires phonological awareness at the phoneme level. We evaluated the reading ability by the reading speed, the reading errors, and the number of pauses while reading sentences aloud.
The task performances of the dyslexic group on all three phonological awareness tasks were significantly lower than those of the control group. Stepwise multiple regression analysis revealed that the mora counting task and the rhyming letter task most significantly explained the reading speed and number of reading pauses. The mora reversal task of words, together with the antegraded digit span, significantly explained the reading errors.
Japanese dyslexics showed deficits of phonological awareness both at the mora and the phoneme levels. Phonological awareness must be crucial for acquiring the ability of decoding phonograms, including Japanese kana.
在字母语言中，语音意识缺陷被认为是发展性阅读障碍的核心缺陷。然而，语音意识在日语假名（一种基于音节、透明的表音文字）阅读习得中的作用尚未完全明确。我们研究了日本阅读障碍儿童在不同类型日语语音任务上的能力，并探讨了哪些任务对阅读能力的各个方面有显著影响。
15名阅读障碍儿童（9.53±1.52岁）和15名阅读能力正常的儿童（9.17±0.90岁）参与了本研究。他们完成了三种语音意识任务。单词的音节计数任务和音节反转任务需要音节层面的语音意识。类似于英语语言任务的字母押韵任务需要音素层面的语音意识。我们通过阅读速度、阅读错误以及大声朗读句子时的停顿次数来评估阅读能力。
阅读障碍组在所有三项语音意识任务上的表现均显著低于对照组。逐步多元回归分析表明，音节计数任务和押韵字母任务对阅读速度和阅读停顿次数的解释最为显著。单词的音节反转任务与顺背数字广度一起，对阅读错误有显著解释作用。
日本阅读障碍儿童在音节和音素层面均表现出语音意识缺陷。语音意识对于获得包括日语假名在内的表音文字解码能力至关重要。
