LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 15:1 January 2015
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Rhyme and Phonemic Awareness Skills in
Kannada Speaking Children with Cerebral Palsy

Angel Mercy Ruby Selvakumar, MASLP
Sunila John, Ph.D.
G Kanaka, Ph.D.
B Rajashekhar, Ph.D.

Abstract

Rhyme and phoneme awareness are skills that are essential for learning to read and spell. Their significance has been well established in alphabetic languages. Few studies have ventured to understand these skills in an alpha-syllabary language such as Kannada, where their significance has been debated. However, research related to these skills in childhood conditions like cerebral palsy is scarce. The present study aimed to understand the rhyme and phonemic awareness skills through the tasks of rhyme recognition, phoneme stripping and phoneme oddity for non-words using Metaphonological Skills Test (Prema, 1997). The participants were Kannada speaking children with cerebral palsy (n=12) and language-age (> 8 years) matched, typically developing peers (n=30). The results showed a significant difference between groups for phoneme stripping alone. This implies a lag in the development of phoneme awareness skills in children with cerebral palsy (CWCP). This necessitates early metaphonological instruction and inclusion in the educational curriculum of CWCP.

Key words: Rhyme awareness, phoneme awareness, syllabary, Kannada language, cerebral palsy, phoneme stripping, phoneme oddity.

Introduction

Metaphonological awareness is the ability to consciously and purposefully reflect on the sound structure of language (Gillon, 2004). It is an umbrella term that includes word, syllable, onset-rime and phoneme awareness. Phoneme awareness is the last skill to develop (Catts, 1991) following word, syllable and onset-rime awareness. This skill is not possessed by pre-literate children (Dodd & Gillon, 2001) but develops with exposure to literacy (Anthony & Francis, 2005). Rhyme awareness includes the ability to identify, generate and judge rhymes whereas phoneme awareness involves being able to blend, segment and manipulate phonemes.

In alphabetic languages, rhyme and phoneme awareness play an important role in learning literacy skills (Adams, 1990). Phoneme awareness influences spelling (Juel, Griffith & Gough, 1986) and along with letter knowledge, aids in sounding out unfamiliar words (Muter, 1996). Rhyme awareness aids children in reading unfamiliar words (Goswami & Bryant, 1990), adds advantage to reading by analogy (Anthony & Lonigan, 2004) and may aid in reading and spelling words that are similar (Goswami & Bryant, 1990). Sensitivity to rhyme predicts reading and spelling skills (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Muter, Hulme, Snowling, & Taylor, 1998). Children who learn to read quickly possess better rhyme and phoneme detection ability (Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Development of phoneme awareness and the ability to reliably identify rhymes occurs within 5-7 years of age (Hodson, 2005, cited in Rhyner, 2009).

Although these metaphonological skills have been less studied in non-alphabetic languages (Mann, 1986; Leong, 1991; Loureiro et al., 2004), rhyme awareness and phoneme awareness have been investigated in Kannada by few researchers in typically developing children (Prakash & Rekha, 1992; Prema, 1997; Ramakishan, 1989). Rhyme recognition develops earlier with scores approximating maximum in Grade 3 while the skills of phoneme deletion and oddity improve across grades to beyond fifth grade (Prema, 1997). The skills of rhyme recognition, phoneme oddity and phoneme deletion show significant correlation to reading performance in Grade 2 whereas in Grade 3, only phoneme deletion continues to show a significant correlation with reading (Prakash, Rekha, Nigam, & Karanth, 1993). At present, a consensus exists that these skills may not play as crucial a role in reading in alpha-syllabary languages when compared to alphabetic languages. However, instruction focussing on improving metaphonological skills in Kannada-speaking (Shilpashri, 2004) and Malayalam-speaking dyslexics (Ponnumani, 2003) has proved beneficial.

In CWCP, the development of phonological skills is influenced by the accompanying dysarthric speech impairment. Rhyme recognition skills of verbal CWCP were on par with typically developing children when stimuli were presented verbally (Bishop & Robson, 1989). Children with impaired but intelligible speech performed significantly poorer on phoneme awareness tasks compared to children with natural speech (Vandervelden & Siegel, 1999). Brewis (2002, cited in Card & Dodd, 2006) stated that structured training of phonological awareness skills is necessary in CWCP based on observations of their literacy learning. The domain of rhyme and phoneme awareness in CWCP exposed to Kannada has not been explored. The aim of this study was to understand the rhyme and phonemic awareness skills in Kannada-speaking verbal CWCP. The objectives were to compare the skills of rhyme recognition, phoneme stripping and phoneme oddity between CWCP and typically developing peers.

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Angel Mercy Ruby Selvakumar, MASLP
Assistant Professor
Department of Speech and Hearing
School of Allied Health Sciences
Manipal University
Manipal 576104
Karnataka
India
angel.selvakumar@manipal.edu

Sunila John, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Speech and Hearing
School of Allied Health Sciences
Manipal University
Manipal 576104
Karnataka
India
sunila.john@manipal.edu

G Kanaka, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Speech and Hearing
School of Allied Health Sciences
Manipal University
Manipal 576104
Karnataka
India
g.kanaka@manipal.edu

B Rajashekhar, Ph.D.
Professor & Dean
Department of Speech and Hearing
School of Allied Health Sciences
Manipal University
Manipal 576104
Karnataka
India
b.raja@manipal.edu

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