Manchester Metropolitan University

1. Manchester Metropolitan University Paper presented at the Research Institute for Health and Social Change 2006 Annual Conference 3rd July 2006 Ann French a.french@mmu.ac.uk

2. MEASURING PHONOLOGICAL SKILLS IN ADOLESCENCE

3. Background • Referrals of junior and secondary age children with language and communication impairments attending mainstream schools • Evidence that early language and communication problems may not resolve • Lack of secondary school SLT provision • Lack of knowledge about the nature and extent of difficulties secondary students may encounter • Lack of suitable assessments

4. What are phonological skills? Needed for: • Discriminating/identifying heard words • Understanding spoken language • Pronouncing familiar words • Learning new words • Reading and spelling (phonological awareness) • Word puzzles, jokes… • Rote learning

5. By 11 yrs most children appear to have well developed pronunciation and literacy skills, so is phonological development complete? Recent research suggests during adolescence there is ongoing development of: Phonological perception (Hazan and Barrett, 2002) Phonological production (Walsh and Smith, 2002) Phonological awareness (Wagner, Torgensen and Rashotte, 1999) Additionally, word learning and phonological memory demands continue throughout life.

6. Phonological skills in the secondary curriculum • Reading and spelling (orthographic stage of literacy) • Learning new words (all subjects) • Appreciating literary concepts such as alliteration and rhyme (English) • Understanding puns and other jokes (literacy, social communication) • Reflecting on accents and their role in communication (English, social communication) • Learning new writing styles such as text messaging (social communication) • Learning the spoken and written words of other languages (MFLs) • Memory (all areas of the curriculum)

7. Methodology A correlational design Hypothesis 1 Performance on phonological tasks will be influenced by (i) word knowledge (Garlock, Walley & Metsala, 2001) (ii) available WM space Gathercole, Pickering, Ambridge & Wearing, 2004) (iii) attention control Manly, Robertson, Anderson, & Nimmo-Smith, 1999). Hypothesis 2 Performance on phonological tasks will be predicted by (i) early hearing, speech and literacy development (Nittrouer and Burton, 2005) (ii) family history of speech/literacy difficulty (Snowling, Bishop & Stothard, 2000) (iii) SES (Locke and Ginsborg, 2003) Hypothesis 3 Performance on phonological tasks will be correlated with academic achievement scores (Gathercole, Pickering, Knight & Stegmann, 2004).

8. Method: Participants • Year 7 students, aged 11;6-12;0 (+) randomly selected from a mainstream comprehensive school • Pilot study: 11 students • Main study: 2 cohorts of 45-50 students (2005-6; 2006-7)

9. Method: Procedures 1. Questionnaires completed by parents/guardians: • Student’s early hearing, language and literacy development • Family incidence of language and/or literacy impairments • SES indicators (parent employment/education)

10. 2.Assessment of students’: • Semantic/phonological word knowledge • Phonological awareness: Rhyme judgement {A = low WM load Spoonerism production {B = High WM load • Word production: Real word repetition Nonword repetition Tongue twisters • Working memory • Attention control • New tests developed during pilot • Published tests

11. 3.Academic data supplied by school: • End of Year 6 SAT scores in English, Maths and Science • Early Year 7 CAT scores in Verbal, Nonverbal and Numerical Reasoning • End of Year 7 subject marks for English, Maths, Science, and Modern Foreign Languages

12. Pilot Results 1.Significant correlations between phonological tasks: Word Knowledge with • Nonword Repetition** • Spoonerism A* Spoonerism B with • Rhyme B* • Tongue Twisters* 2. Significant correlations between phonological tasks and SES (early years data too limited in pilot group) • Rhyme A with Parent Employment

13. 3.Significant correlations between phonological tasks and academic scores: KS2 Maths with • Real Word Repetition ** • Rhyme A* KS2 English with: • Spoonerism B* Verbal Reasoning with: • Word Knowledge* • Tongue Twisters * • Nonword Repetition* Numerical Reasoning with: • Tongue Twisters • Spoonerism A* and B*

14. Discussion • Pilot data too limited to be of much importance (Skewing and kurtosis) • Some expected correlations e.g. Verbal Reasoning with Word Knowledge and Nonword Repetition • Some unexpected correlations e.g. Numerical Reasoning with Tongue Twisters/Spoonerisms (WM load?)

15. Conclusions from Pilot Hypothesis 1 Performance on phonological tasks will be influenced by (i) word knowledge (ii) available WM space (iii) attention control. Yes, but also by motor planning skill Hypothesis 2 Performance on phonological tasks will be predicted by (i) early hearing, speech and literacy development (ii) family history of speech/literacy difficulty (iii) SES Insufficient evidence from pilot Hypothesis 3 Performance on phonological tasks will be correlated with academic achievement scores. Yes, but not sure of the nature of the interactions yet

16. References • Hazan, V. and Barrett, S. (2002). The development of phonemic categorisation in children aged 6-12. Journal of Phonetics, 28, 377-396. • Garlock, V.M., Walley, A.C. and Metsala, J.L. (2001). Age-of acquisition, word frequency, and neighbourhood density effects on spoken word recognition by children and adults. Journal of Memory and Language, 45, 468-492. • Gathercole, S.E., Pickering, S.J., Ambridge, B. and Wearing, H. (2004). The structure of working memory from 4 to 15 years of age. Developmental Psychology, 40, 2, 177-190. • Gathercole, S.E., Pickering, S.J., Knight, C. and Stegmann, Z. (2004). Working memory skills and educational attainment: Evidence from National Curriculum Assessments at age 7 and 14 years of age. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 18, 1-16. • Locke, A. and Ginsborg, J. (2003). Spoken language in the early years: the cognitive and linguistic development of three- to five-year-old children from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. Educational and Child Psychology, 20, 4, 68-79. • Manly, T., Robertson, H., Anderson, V. and Nimmo-Smith, I. (1999). The Test of Everyday Attention for Children. Bury St Edmunds, England: Thames Valley Test Company Limited. • Nittrouer, S. and Burton, L.T. (2005). The role of early phonological experience in the development of speech perception and phonological processing abilities: Evidence from 5-year olds with histories of otitis media with effusion and low socio-economic status. Journal of Communication Disorders, 38, 29-63. • Snowling, M., Bishop, D.V.M. and Stothard, S.E. (2000). Is preschool language impairment a risk factor for dyslexia in adolescence? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 41, 5, 587-600. • Wagner, R.K., Torgensen, J.K. and Rashotte, C.A. (1999). The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing. Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed. • Walsh, B. and Smith,A. (2002). Articulatory movement in adolescents: evidence for protracted development of speech motor control processes. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 45, 1119-1133.