Computer-assisted training of phoneme–grapheme correspondence for children who are deaf and hard of hearing: Effects on phonological processing skills

Abstract

Objective: Examine deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) children's phonological processing skills in relation to a reference group of children with normal hearing (NH) at two baselines pre intervention.Study the effects of computer-assisted phoneme-grapheme correspondence training in the children.Specifically analyze possible effects on DHH children's phonological processing skills. Methods:The study included 48 children who participated in a computer-assisted intervention study, which focuses on phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Children were 5, 6, and 7 years of age. There were 32 DHH children using cochlear implants (CI) or hearing aids (HA), or both in combination, and 16 children with NH. The study had a quasi-experimental design with three test occasions separated in time by four weeks; baseline 1 and 2 pre intervention, and 3, post intervention. Children performed tasks measuring lexical access, phonological processing, and letter knowledge. All children were asked to practice ten minutes per day at home supported by their parents.Results: NH children outperformed DHH children on the majority of tasks. All children improved their accuracy in phoneme-grapheme correspondence and output phonology as a function of the computer-assisted intervention. For the whole group of children, and specifically for children with CI, a lower initial phonological composite score was associated with a larger phonological change between baseline 2 and post intervention. Finally, 18 DHH children, whereof 11 children with CI, showed specific intervention effects on their phonological processing skills, and strong effect sizes for their improved accuracy of phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Conclusion:For some DHH children phonological processing skills are boosted relatively more by phoneme-grapheme correspondence training. This reflects the reciprocal relationship between phonological change and exposure to and manipulations of letters.2

Developmental changes of early reading skills in six-year-old Polish children and GraphoGame as a computer-based intervention to support them

“…GraphoGame (Finnish name: Ekapeli) that was developed at the University of Jyväskylä and Niilo Mäki Institute, and subsequently spread to other countries (Lyytinen et al, 2007(Lyytinen et al, , 2009Lovio et al, 2012;Hintikka et al, 2005Hintikka et al, , 2008Huemer et al, 2008Huemer et al, , 2010Brem et al, 2010;Saine et al, 2010Saine et al, , 2011Bach et al, 2013;Kyle et al, 2013, Nakeva von Mentzer et al, 2013. This computer game is designed to provide intensive training in rapid recognition of grapheme-phoneme associations and further reading skills, aimed at helping children to overcome 'the storage/retrieval bottleneck' that prevents reading skills development (Lyytinen, 2007).…”

“…Furthermore, a study of English readers revealed that 12 weeks of training improved reading skills, spelling, and phonological skills of GraphoGame players in comparison with the untreated control group (Kyle et al, 2013). Potentially promising results were also published for deaf and hard of hearing children in Sweden (though the study lacks a control group; Nakeva von Mentzer et al, 2013).…”

The Phonics Approach in Swedish Children using Cochlear Implants or Hearing Aids: Inspecting Phonological Gain

“…Phoneme Identification latency is referred to as one of two phonological latency scores in the present study. For a more extensive description of the Phoneme identification task the reader is adviced to Wass et al [25] and Nakeva von Mentzer et al [17].…”

“…Phonological composite score: In order to increase the sensitivity and strength of the various specific phonological processing measures, and to enable a general comparison of the children, a phonological composite score was created [17]. The phonological composite score was calculated by a unit weighted-procedure, i.e., each unit was calculated in percent accurate, and then summarized to a global score.…”

“…In an earlier computer-assisted intervention study on DHH and NH children [17] we used a global accuracy measure of PhPS, i.e., a phonological composite score, to study the effects of a phonics approach. Results showed that for the whole group of DHH children, and specifically for children with CI, a lower initial phonological composite score was associated with a larger phonological gain at post intervention.…”