Kannada akshara knowledge in primary school children: measurement of accuracy and reaction time using a cross-sectional study design.

Background: Reading acquisition varies between languages, as languages differ in terms of phonology and orthography. Orthographic knowledge is demonstrated to be crucial in literacy acquisition in most orthographies. The literature on acquisition of orthographic knowledge has focused more on alphabetic orthographies and less is understood in alphasyllabary Kannada language. The present study aimed to understand the akshara knowledge acquisition by measuring akshara identification accuracy and reaction time in typically developing Kannada medium primary school children. Methods: The study consisted of 315 typically developing children, 45 each from Grade I through Grade VII between the age range of 5 years 6 months to 12 years 6 months. The children were assessed for akshara identification accuracy and reaction time using a representative sample of 67 akshara selected at four different levels of complexity: vowels in primary form, consonant with inherent vowels, consonant with vowel diacritics, and consonant clusters. The mean performance was compared between the groups using one-way ANOVA with post-hoc Bonferroni test. Results: One-way ANOVA revealed significant main effect (p≤0.05) of Grade on akshara identification accuracy and reaction time. The post-hoc Bonferroni test revealed that the mean akshara identification accuracy improved significantly (p≤0.05) from Grade I to Grade V and reached a plateau at Grade VI. The reaction time significantly reduced from Grade I to Grade IV and there was no significant change beyond Grade V.    Conclusion: The children learning to read alphasyllabary Kannada gain mastery over the majority of aksharas during the initial years of formal schooling, which develops completely by Grade VI. The automaticity in naming akshara develops gradually and reaches a plateau by Grade IV. The present findings indicate that children acquire automaticity in naming akshara early, while the akshara knowledge continues to develop.

Comparison of temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel perception between children with and without reading disability.

Background: Children with reading disabilities (RD) exhibit difficulty in perceiving speech in background noise due to poor auditory stream segregation. There is a dearth of literature on measures of temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities to assess auditory stream segregation in children with reading disabilities. Hence the present study compared temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities between children with and without reading deficits. Method: The present research consisted of a total number of 30 participants, 15 children with reading disabilities (RD) and fifteen typically developing (TD) children within the age range of 7-14 years and were designated as Group 1 and Group 2 respectively. Both groups were matched for age, grade, and classroom curricular instructions. The groups were evaluated for TFS and concurrent vowel perception abilities and the performance was compared using independent 't' test and repeated measure ANOVA respectively. Results: Results revealed that the children with RD performed significantly (p < 0.001) poorer than TD children on both TFS and concurrent vowel identification task. On concurrent vowel identification tasks, there was no significant interaction found between reading ability and F0 difference suggesting that the trend was similar in both the groups. Conclusion: The study concludes that the children with RD show poor temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel identification scores compared to age and grade matched TD children owing to poor auditory stream segregation in children with RD.