Longitudinal predictors of implicit phonological awareness skills.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal predictive relationships among variables that may contribute to poor phonological awareness skills in preschool-age children with speech-sound disorders. METHOD Forty-seven children with speech-sound disorders were assessed during the spring of their prekindergarten year and again at the end of their kindergarten year. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine relationships among the children's prekindergarten and kindergarten performance on measures of speech perception, vocabulary, articulation, and phonological awareness skills in order to verify a proposed developmental ordering of these variables during this 1-year period. RESULTS Prekindergarten speech perception skills and receptive vocabulary size each explained unique variance in phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten. Prekindergarten articulation abilities did not predict unique variance in phonological awareness a year later. Prekindergarten speech perception skills also explained unique variance in articulation skills at the end of kindergarten. CONCLUSIONS Maximizing children's vocabulary and speech perception skills before they begin school may be an important strategy for ensuring that children with speech-sound disorders begin school with age-appropriate speech and phonological awareness abilities.