engleski

SLI and early literacy: impact of language and ortography

Reading as a highly advanced cognitive-linguistic skill can be viewed as two-component model (Gough & Tanmer, 1986). Oral-language-related component includes the lexicon and knowledge of morphosyntax, both of which facilitate comprehension. Linguistic-code-related component is associated with word recognition and depends on initial phonological representations that form the basis of future decoding and encoding. Aside from vocabulary, one of the crucial skills in reading acquistion is phonological awareness (PA) i.e. abstract skill that allows manipulation of individual phonemes within the word structure. PA developmentaly depends on aspects of verbal working memory (VWM), i.e. phonological memory (PM) and working memory (WM) capacity. Success in performing PA tasks depends on either PM or WM capacity. In addition, letter knowledge has been identified as an important factor in early decoding and encoding. Recently, a lot of attention has been given to the role of orthograthy in reading acquistion. Structure and characteristic of orthography (deep vs. transparent) has great impact on beginning reading skill (Aro, 2004 ; Caravolas, 2006 ; Lyytinen, 2006 ; Zaretsky et al., 2009). Children exposed to the transparent orthography (e.g., Croatian) use reading pre-requisites, such as vocabulary, PM, WM and PA, differently and have better early decoding and encoding skills than their counterparts exposed to deep orthography (e.g., English) (Zaretsky et al, 2009). Children with speech and language disorders traditionally have difficulties acquiring literacy skills. For the present study we focused on children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) who were exposed to different orthographies: transparent (Croatian) and deep (English). Our aim was to answer the following questions: a) What is the interaction between oral-language (lexicon) and code-related skills (PM, WM and PA), alphabet knowledge and early literacy skills in a group of kindergartners with SLI from different linguistic backgrounds? b) Does orthography make a difference in early literacy achievements in a group of children who may have difficulty acquiring reading skills, such as children with SLI? We will present the results of both, the pilot study with SLI group and the original study with typically developing (TD) group to emphasize the role of orthography in acquisition of early literacy skills. Ten Croatian-speaking and ten English-speaking children with SLI were administered the same battery of tests used in the previous study with TD children of the same age and from the same linguistic backgrounds (Zaretsky, et al. 2009). Our main findings confirmed that children with SLI, regardless of the language of exposure, have the same underlying deficits in their cognitive and linguistic profiles. However, they utilize their resources differently as a factor of ambient language: Croatian speakers had better WM and PA skills, as well as showed significant predictive power of vocabulary and alphabet knowledge on early reading skills, while English speakers did not (Zaretsky & Kuvac Kraljevic, in preparation).

SLI; reading acquisition

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