Is phonological awareness related to pitch, rhythm and speech-in-noise discrimination in young children?

Abstract

PURPOSE : Phonological awareness (PA) requires the complex integration of language, speech and auditory processing abilities. Enhanced pitch and rhythm discrimination have been shown to improve PA and speech-in-noise (SiN) discrimination. The screening of pitch and rhythm discrimination, if non-linguistic correlates of these abilities, could contribute to screening procedures prior to diagnostic assessment. This research aimed determine the association of PA abilities with pitch, rhythm- and SiN discrimination in children aged five- to seven-years old. METHOD : Forty-one participants’ pitch, rhythm and SiN discrimination and PA abilities were evaluated. To control for confounding factors, including biological and environmental risk exposure and gender differences, typically developing male children from high socio-economic statuses were selected. Pearson correlation was used to identify associations between variables and stepwise regression analysis was used to identify possible predictors of PA. RESULTS : Correlations of medium strength were identified between PA and pitch, rhythm and SiN discrimination. Pitch and diotic digit-in-noise discrimination formed the strongest regression model (adjusted R2 = 0.4213, r = .649) for phoneme-grapheme correspondence. CONCLUSION : The current study demonstrates predictive relationships between the complex auditory discrimination skills of pitch, rhythm and diotic digit-in-noise recognition and foundational phonemic awareness and phonic skills in young males from high socio-economic statuses. Pitch, rhythm and digit-in-noise discrimination measures hold potential as screening measures for delays in phonemic awareness and phonic difficulties and as components of stimulation programs.