ACQ Vol 11 no 2 2009

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ACQ Volume 11, Number 2 2009 73
The home literacy environment is an important influencing
factor in young children’s reading acquisition (Frijters, Barron,
& Brunello, 2000). The use of parent questionnaires such
as the “Early Literacy Parent Questionnaire” (Boudreau,
2005) or an adapted version for parents of children with
Down syndrome (van Bysterveldt, Gillon, and Foster-Cohen,
in press) may be useful for speech pathologists to gain an
understanding of the home literacy context. Developing an
assessment profile that integrates knowledge about the
child’s spoken and written language abilities from varying
sources is recommended.
Intervention
Research has established cost-effective methods to
improve both spoken and written language skills of children
with spoken language impairment. Gillon (2000, 2002)
demonstrated that 20 hours of phonological awareness
intervention significantly improved speech production,
reading and spelling performance for New Zealand children
with spoken language impairment, including children with
severe speech impairment.
An independent replication of Gillon’s (2000a) study was
conducted in London with 5–7 year old British children
who had speech impairment (Denne, Langdown, Pring, &
Roy, 2005). The researchers based their intervention on the
Gillon Phonological Awareness Training Programme (Gillon
2000b), but made some adaptations to the content and
reduced the intensity of the treatment. Denne et al. (2005)
found the intervention was effective in rapidly improving the
children’s phonological awareness development. Consistent
with Gillon’s results, large effect sizes were obtained for
measures of phonological awareness. However, the transfer
of phonological awareness skills to speech and reading was
not evident following the 12 hours of intervention. Denne
et al. highlighted the importance of program intensity and
the need for increased time to ensure transfer effects.
Alternatively, the adaptations made by Denne et al. to the
program content may have weakened the component that
specifically addresses the links between speech and print
that were emphasised in the Gillon (2000) study.
Gillon’s results (2000) are consistent with a large body of
research demonstrating the effectiveness of phonological
awareness training for varying populations. For example; the
following groups have all demonstrated positive reading and/
or spelling outcomes in response to phonological awareness
intervention:
• older children with specific reading disability or dyslexia
(e.g., Gillon & Dodd, 1995, 1997; Lovett & Steinbach,
1997; Truch, 1994);
• young children from low socioeconomic backgrounds
(e.g., Blachman, Ball, Black, & Tangel, 1994; Gillon et al.,
2007);
• children diagnosed with moderate learning difficulties
(Hatcher, 2000);
• children with Down syndrome (van Bysterveldt, Gillon,
Foster-Cohen, 2009; Goetz et al., 2008);
• children with childhood apraxia of speech (McNeill, Gillon,
& Dodd, in press);
• preschool and school-aged native speakers of: English
(e.g., Brennan & Ireson, 1997; Torgesen, Morgan, &
Davis, 1992); Spanish (Defior & Tudela, 1994); German
(Schneider, Kuspert, Roth, & Vise, 1997); Danish
(Lundberg, Frost, & Petersen, 1988); and Samoan
(Hamilton & Gillon, 2005).
A meta-analysis of 52 controlled research studies
in phonological awareness intervention confirmed that
Assessment examples
Gillon (2004) and Torgesen (1999) discussed standardised
and criterion-referenced phonological awareness tasks
that may be useful. Examples of standardised assessment
measures are presented in table 1.
Table 1. Examples of standardised phonological
awareness assessment measures that are suitable
across the lifespan
Assessment Normed Normed
age group population
Preschool and Primary Inventory of 3;0–6;11 Australian
Phonological Awareness (PIPA) (Dodd, and British
Crosbie, MacIntosh, Teitzel, & Ozanne,
2000)
The Phonological Awareness Test (PAT) 4;0–7;11 British
(Muter, Hulme, & Snowling, 1997)
Queensland University Inventory of 6;0–12;0 Australian
Literacy (QUIL) (Dodd, Holm, Oerlemans,
& McCormick, 1996)
Sutherland Phonological Awareness Grade 1–4 Australian
Test – Revised (SPAT-R) (Neilson, 2003)
The Comprehensive Test of Phonological 5;0–24;0 American
Processing (CTOPP) (Wagner, Torgesen,
& Rashotte, 1999).
The Lindamood Auditory 5;0–18;0 American
Conceptualisation Test (LAC) (3rd ed.)
(Lindamood & Lindamood, 2004)
Informal phonological awareness assessments and the
development of assessment probes are useful to gather
baseline data prior to and during intervention to monitor
treatment effectiveness (see Gillon, 2004, for a discussion of
phonological awareness assessment tools and a critique of
their psychometric properties).
An evaluation of children’s phonological awareness skills
should be carried out alongside other speech and language
assessments. Areas of spoken language development known
to specifically impact upon written language development
should be included in a comprehensive assessment (e.g.,
children’s semantic and syntactic development). Children’s
oral narrative abilities are also related to reading compre­
hension performance and oral narrative protocols that
demonstrate optimal language sampling conditions should
be administered to children suspected of having language
impairment (Westby, 1999; Westerveld & Gillon, 1999/2000).
Working with families and teachers
Speech pathologists typically collaborate with families,
teachers, and reading specialists in assessing children with
speech and language impairment. Data collected related
to children’s phonological awareness and phonological
processing abilities should be integrated with teachers’
and parents’ knowledge in areas such as the children’s
print concepts, letter knowledge, and literacy curriculum
assessments, attitudes to reading, reading materials of
interest, as well as visual and hearing abilities. Observing the
child’s ability to use phonology in the reading and spelling
process in classroom activities through analysing spelling
attempts in writing samples or analysing reading errors
when the child is reading aloud provides additional useful
information.