Development of Metaphonological Abilities of Korean Children Aged from 3 to 6

3$\sim$6세 아동의 상위음운능력 발달 연구

The Korean Metaphonological Assessment, adapted from the Metaphonological Abilities Battery (MAB; Hesketh, 2000b) was administered to examine the development of metaphonological skills of 60 normally developing Korean pre-school children aged from 3 to 6. The tasks were specifically designed to evaluate their skills to detect rhymes, onsets, and segments. A gradual improvement of total scores was observed in children from 3 to 5, with evidence for developmental refinements of metaphonological abilities in the ages of 5 and 6. Subjects were found to develop segmenting skills at a relatively early age and gradually progressed toward detecting onsets and then rhymes. The differences in the order of development from the previous studies with English-speaking children were discussed. This preliminary study also aimed to provide foundational information for investigating the link between expressive phonological impairments, metaphonolgocial skills, and literacy in Korean-speaking children.