The fragile nature of phonological awareness in children with specific language impairment: Evidence from literacy development

Previous studies have suggested that children with specific language impairment (SLI) risk encountering subsequent literacy difficulties, due to difficulties in phonological awareness (PA). This longitudinal study provides evidence in support of this view based on a group of 20 French-speaking children with SLI examined at the start of learning to read. It also investigates the specific difficulties in reading decoding, reading comprehension and spelling. The sample was tested on standardized measures of phonological awareness, nonverbal skills, morphosyntax, reading, and spelling. The assessment was performed twice separated by an interval of 30 months. At Time 2, the results indicated normal scores on phonological awareness. Despite this, the sample scored poorly on literacy tasks, and the majority exhibited particularly striking deficits on spelling. We argue that there is a reciprocal influence between the early PA deficit and the subsequent literacy development in children with SLI. The sample of the study presented normal PA skills after 2 or 3 years of schooling. Nonetheless, most of the participants experienced difficulties on the literacy tasks, thus proving that the acquired PA skills were fragile and not sufficiently developed to cope with tasks more complicated than typical PA tasks.