Background and aims Phonological awareness begins to develop during the preschool years and is a primary factor underlying later reading abilities. Previous research has found mixed results on the phonological awareness skills of children with autism spectrum disorders. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to add to our understanding of phonological awareness in children with autism spectrum disorder by investigating residualized gains in phonological awareness skills over an academic year. Methods A total of 125 preschool (4- to 5-years old) children including 27 children with autism spectrum disorder, 28 children with language impairment, and 70 typically developing children were the focus of the present study. Participants in the current study represent a subset of participants from a larger study titled, Sit Together and Read. Children completed direct assessments in the beginning (fall) and end of school year (spring) on phonological awareness using the Test of Preschool Early Literacy. Results A one-way ANOVA compared the phonological awareness skills tasks (syllable/onset-rime, blending/elision, receptive/expressive) in the fall and the spring for each of the three groups (children with autism spectrum disorder, children with language impairment, children who are typically developing). In the fall and the spring, all of the analyses were found to be statistically significant. A Tukey HSD further indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder had significantly lower scores on all of the tasks at both time points compared to the typically developing peers. Children with autism spectrum disorder seem to make gains in phonological awareness tasks similarly to their typically developing peers for most of the phonological awareness tasks. Results from the final regression models indicated that children with autism spectrum disorder made gains similar to those of their typically developing peers for most phonological awareness tasks and that language skills predicted residualized gain for syllable, elision, and receptive tasks, as well as the total score when controlling for condition, IQ, and group status. Social skills were not a significant predictor for any of the tasks. Conclusions Three main findings emerged: (a) phonological awareness skills seem to be a deficit for children with autism spectrum disorder, (b) in general, autism status does not predict residualized gain in phonological awareness skills, and (c) oral language is a significant predictor of residualized gain in phonological awareness skills. Implication Early childhood educators should focus on providing high-quality instruction on phonological awareness for children with autism spectrum disorder and researchers should focus on investigating the effectiveness of phonological awareness interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder.

中文翻译：

---

学龄前儿童自闭症谱系障碍的语音意识出现

背景和目的语音意识在学龄前就开始发展，并且是后来阅读能力的主要因素。先前的研究发现自闭症谱系障碍儿童的语音意识技能方面的结果参差不齐。因此，本研究的目的是通过调查一个学年中语音意识技能的残留收益来增加对自闭症谱系障碍儿童语音意识的理解。方法本研究的重点是总共125名学龄前儿童（4至5岁），其中包括27名自闭症谱系障碍儿童，28名语言障碍儿童和70名典型发育儿童。当前研究的参与者代表了一项名为“一起坐下来阅读”的较大研究的参与者子集。儿童使用学龄前早期识字测验在学期初（秋季）和学年末（春季）完成了对语音意识的直接评估。结果单因素方差分析比较了三组（自闭症谱系障碍儿童，语言障碍儿童）在秋季和春季的语音意识技能任务（音节/开始语气，交融/消除，接受/表达） ，通常是发育中的儿童）。在秋季和春季，所有分析都被认为具有统计学意义。Tukey HSD进一步表明，与典型的同龄人相比，自闭症谱系障碍儿童在两个时间点的所有任务得分均明显较低。自闭症谱系障碍儿童似乎在音素意识方面的任务有所收获，与他们通常在大多数音素意识方面的发展中的同龄人类似。最终回归模型的结果表明，自闭症谱系障碍儿童在大多数语音意识任务上的收益与他们通常发育的同龄人的收益相似，并且语言技能预测了音节，省略和接受任务的残差收益以及总分控制条件，智商和组状态时。社交技能并不是任何任务的重要预测指标。结论出现了三个主要发现：（a）自闭症谱系障碍儿童的语音意识技能似乎不足，（b）一般而言，自闭症状态不能预测语音意识技能残留的收益，并且（c）口头语言是语音意识技能残留残留的重要预测指标。启示幼儿教育者应着重于为自闭症谱系障碍儿童提供高质量的语音意识教学，研究人员应着重于研究针对自闭症谱系障碍儿童的语音意识干预措施的有效性。