Relationship between implicit learning and phonological awareness in children with articulation and phonological disorders

Abstract

Objectives: Children with articulation and phonological disorders (APD) have impaired phonological awareness. Phonological awareness and implicit learning ability are associated with the same brain regions. Controversial studies have been conducted on phonological awareness and implicit learning. The purpose of the present study was to compare the characteristics of phonological awareness and implicit learning between children with APD and normal children. The main objective was to evaluate the relationship between phonological awareness and implicit learning ability in children with APD. Methods: A total of 32 children participated in the study. Sixteen children with APD (70.81 months) and 16 matched normally developing (ND) children (70.62 months) were administered five tests (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Korean Children-II, Receptive&Expressive Vocabulary Test, Urimal Test of Articulation and Phonology, sequence learning test and the phonological awareness test). Results: There were three main findings. First, the phonological awareness score of children with APD was significantly lower than normally developing children. Second, a significant difference was found in the sequence learning task (accuracy and implicit learning ability) of the two groups. Lastly, children with APD and ND had a positive correlation among sequence learning accuracy and phonological awareness. Conclusion: The results from the present study suggest that evaluation of sequence learning and phonological awareness are useful clinical approaches for studying APD. © 2016 Korean Academy of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology.