Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands.
Res Dev Disabil. 2018 Jan;72:1-12. doi: 10.1016/j.ridd.2017.10.017. Epub 2017 Nov 5.
In the present study, we investigated (i) to what extent the early literacy skills (phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and word decoding) along with cognitive (nonverbal reasoning, attention, phonological short-term memory, sequential memory, executive functioning) and linguistic (auditory discrimination, rapid naming, articulation, vocabulary) precursor measures of 53 six-year old children with intellectual disabilities (ID) differ from a group of 74 peers with normal language acquisition (NLA) and (ii) whether the individual variation of early literacy skills in the two groups to the same extent can be explained from the precursor measures. Results showed that children with ID scored below the NLA group on all literacy and precursor measures. Structural equation modeling evidenced that in the children with NLA early literacy was directly predicted by phonological awareness, PSTM and vocabulary, with nonverbal reasoning and auditory discrimination also predicting phonological awareness. In children with ID however, the variation in word decoding was predicted by letter knowledge and nonverbal reasoning, whereas letter knowledge was predicted by rapid naming, which on its turn was predicted by attentional skills. It can be concluded phonological awareness plays a differential role in the early literacy skills of children with and without ID. As a consequence, the arrears in phonological awareness in children with ID might put them on hold in gaining proper access to literacy acquisition.
This paper adds to the theoretical knowledge base on literacy acquisition in a special population, namely children with intellectual disabilities (ID). It addresses factors that influence early literacy learning, which have not been investigated thoroughly in this special and specific group. Furthermore, the children are not tested solely on literacy, but also on cognitive measures that may influence literacy acquisition. Whereas most research in ID focuses on groups with specific syndromes/etiologies, this paper takes a varied group of children with ID into account. The paper also adds to educational insights, since the findings imply that children with ID are able to use phonological pathways in learning to read. Educators could teach these children phonics-based literacy skills tailored to their individual learning needs.
（i）探究 53 名智力障碍（ID）儿童和 74 名语言正常习得（NLA）儿童在早期读写技能（语音意识、字母知识和单词解码）以及认知（非言语推理、注意力、语音短时记忆、序列记忆、执行功能）和语言（听觉辨别、快速命名、发音、词汇）前导指标方面的差异程度；（ii）探讨两组儿童的早期读写技能个体差异在多大程度上可以从前导指标中得到解释。结果表明，ID 组儿童在所有读写和前导指标上的得分均低于 NLA 组。结构方程模型表明，在 NLA 儿童中，早期读写直接由语音意识、PSTM 和词汇预测，非言语推理和听觉辨别也预测语音意识。然而，在 ID 儿童中，单词解码的变化由字母知识和非言语推理预测，而字母知识由快速命名预测，快速命名又由注意力技能预测。可以得出结论，语音意识在 ID 儿童和无 ID 儿童的早期读写技能中起着不同的作用。因此，ID 儿童在语音意识方面的落后可能会使他们在获得适当的读写能力方面受到阻碍。
（i）丰富了特殊人群（即智力障碍儿童）读写能力获取的理论知识基础；（ii）探讨了影响早期读写学习的因素，而这些因素在这一特殊和特定群体中尚未得到深入研究；（iii）本研究不仅测试了 ID 儿童的读写能力，还测试了可能影响其读写能力获取的认知指标。大多数 ID 研究都集中在具有特定综合征/病因的群体上，而本文则考虑了具有不同 ID 的儿童群体；（iv）本文还丰富了教育方面的见解，因为研究结果表明，ID 儿童能够在阅读学习中使用语音途径。教育者可以根据儿童的个体学习需求，教授他们基于语音的读写技能。
