Assessing phonological awareness skills in Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia, using the Indonesian phonological awareness test (tes kesadaran fonologi bahasa Indonesia)

Abstract

Phonological awareness (PA) in preschool and kindergarten is crucial for developing reading skills in second-grade students. However, research on PA skills in Indonesia is still underexplored. The present study aims to contribute to the knowledge about the development of PA skills in Indonesian children (aged 3-6 years 11 months old) by using The Indonesian Phonological Awareness Test (IPAT) developed in this study and fill some of the gaps in existing studies by including late-acquired PA skills (syllable deletion and phoneme deletion) across a wider age range of children. This crosssectional study also aims to investigate the error patterns of PA and reading abilities among children. Additionally, the effects of age and gender on PA skills and reading abilities and the correlation between PA skills and reading abilities were examined. One hundred and four Indonesian preschool children aged 3-6 years 11 months were recruited. The IPAT consisted of two sections: six PA tasks and four reading tasks. Based on the quantitative analysis, there were significant differences in phonological awareness scores across age groups (Kruskal-Wallis, 𝑐ℎ𝑖2=61.174, df=3, p=0.000). In contrast, there was no significant difference between boys and girls (U=1308, Z= - 0.286, p=0.775). There was a significant positive moderate correlation between phonological awareness and reading abilities in Indonesian children aged 5-5 years 11 months and 6-6 years 11 months, 𝑟𝑠(50)= 0.593, p=0.000. According to the qualitative analysis, Indonesian preschool children have developed various PA skills. The children's mastery of PA skills started with rhyme and syllable detection, followed by syllable deletion, rhyme oddity and alliteration oddity, while phoneme deletion was not established until the end of the kindergarten stage. The most prevalent error patterns analyzed in the PA test were alliteration errors, rhyme errors (in rhyme oddity task), no response, omissions, and repetitions. The most prevalent error patterns made in reading were no response, substitutions, and omissions. The present findings provided useful preliminary information for professionals such as speech-language therapists dealing with this child population.