THE STUDY OF PHONETICALLY BALANCED STORY BOOKS FOR CHILDREN: IMPACT ON PHONEME ACQUISITION

Abstract

Adults vocalize, storybooks for preschool to increase their vocabulary to develop their phonological awareness to help them acquire consonant sounds to increase child-adult interaction, etc. Reading storybooks is one of the most basic educational materials that boosts development. Early childhood is a critical period for language and speech development. It is thought that storybook writers do not pay attention to what linguistic consonants their boks should include. In Turkey, the researches regarding the effect of story books on phonological skills are limited. The aim of the present study is the study of the story books in terms of phonetical balance. The study was performed using the general survey model. The purposive sampling technique was used via book review criteria, 36 books were found suitable for 3-4 year old children and formed the study group. Consonants of all words in each book were listed and examined in regarding position of word initial, word medial and word final. Each books word was recorded one by one according to the consonant letters and the place of the consonants in the word. The analysis showed that there were statistically significant difference in consonants of /ç, m, n, r, s, ş, t, y, z/ at the initial, medial and final of words; in consonants of /b, d, g/ as the initial and medial; in consonant of /ğ/ in the medial and at the final of the word (p<.05). Inadequate exposure to consonant phoneme affected the development of children’s phonemic acquisition skills negatively.Phonetically unbalanced storybooks seen as the lowest level consonants as they were phonetically unbalanced. Moreover they were not also found supportive for children with hearing hearing loss

Keywords

• Hearing loss
• phonem acquisition
• phonetically balanced
• story books

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