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Phonological awareness and rapid naming predict word attack and word identification in adults with mild mental retardation.

Saunders KJ, DeFulio A

University of Kansas, USA. ksaunders@ku.edu

In this study we asked whether measures of phonological awareness and rapid naming were correlated with single-word reading skills of 30 adults with mild mental retardation. We presented four tests of phonological awareness (for rime, first, middle, and end-sound categorization), two rapid-naming tests (pictures and letters), and the Woodcock Word-Identification and Word-Attack subtests. All four phonological-awareness measures and both rapid-naming measures were significantly correlated with both word-attack and word-identification skills. This outcome is consistent with findings from typically developing children, suggesting that instruction in phonological awareness would facilitate the acquisition of word-attack skills in individuals with mental retardation.

Published 4 June 2007 in Am J Ment Retard, 112(3): 155-66.
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