Phonological awareness and reading acquisition

Recent research has suggested the importance of oral language ability in learning to read. It was proposed that the young child's awareness of the phonology of his language would greatly influence early reading success. The results revealed a strong relationship between the first grader's reading performance and two measures of his phonological awareness, invented spelling and phoneme segmentation abilities. Development of phonological awareness was not related to the child's sex, intelligence, socioeconomic status, or chronological age within a 12-month span. A third measure of phonological awareness, auditory analysis skills, was found to have less predictive value. The results suggest that an understanding of phonological relationships above and beyond that required for ordinary speaking and listening enables the beginning reader of English to make contact with his alphabetic writing system at the phonemic level. Instruction at the appropriate age level should facilitate this understanding.     

Interactions in the development of spelling,reading and phonological skills

Early interactive processes of development in reading, spelling and implicit and explicit phonological awareness were assessed in a group of children at four time-points as they progressed through their first three years in school. Exploratory causal path analyses were used to investigate the contribution of each ability to the subsequent growth of skill in reading, spelling and phonological awareness. The resultant structural models demonstrate a role of spelling in the early stages of reading acquisition, as well as differential contributions of implicit and explicit phonological awareness to both reading and spelling. They also suggest a developmental cascade from implicit to explicit phonemic awareness in the normal acquisition of phonological knowledge and associated skills. In the early formulative stages of reading implicit phonemic awareness and reading act reciprocally to build skill in each other. But, as ability in word recognition improves, implicit phonemic awareness plays a diminished role in reading. This pattern of initial reciprocal influence and later dissociation is repeated in the relationship between implicit phoneme awareness and spelling. Explicit phonemic awareness is an important factor in the first stages of spelling development but only emerges later as a significant contributor to reading. The early influence of explicit phoneme awareness on spelling, in conjunction with the major contribution of spelling to beginning reading, indicates that experience in spelling promotes the use of a phonological strategy in reading. Within a developmental context, explicit phoneme awareness initially appears to grow out of an implicit appreciation of the overall sound properties of words. Thereafter, ability to identify and segment phonemes develops independently of implicit phonemic awareness and plays an increasingly important role in the further growth of reading and spelling.     

Screening of phonological awareness in the early elementary grades: an IRT approach

The purpose of the present study was to explore the possibilities for the assessment of growth in phonological awareness of children in kindergarten and first grade. Phonological awareness was measured using four sets of items involving rhyming, phoneme identification, phoneme blending, and phoneme segmentation. The results of an exploratory factor analysis and analyses conducted within the framework of item response theory showed one latent ability to underlie the different sets of items, which nevertheless differed in difficulty. Analyses in terms of the children’s ability further showed the phonological awareness measures to be sensitive to growth. The amount of information supplied by the different sets of items depended on the children’s level of ability. The conclusion that it is possible to accurately monitor the development of children’s phonological awareness in the early elementary grades appears to be justified, and this possibility opens up new perspectives for the early screening for reading problems and dyslexia.     

Learning a transparent orthography at five years old: reading development of children during their first year of formal reading instruction in Wales

This study compared the early reading development of five‐year‐old children who were learning to read either English (an opaque orthography) or Welsh (a shallow orthography). The children were being educated in Welsh and English‐speaking primary schools in Wales during their first year of formal reading instruction. Teaching methods in both schools emphasised phonics. The reading, letter recognition and phonological awareness skills of the children were tested at three points in the year (November 1998, March 1999 and June 1999). By March, the children who were learning to read in Welsh were performing better than the English‐speaking group at word recognition. The English‐speaking children showed some improvement in their ability to read regular words across the three test phases, but no significant improvement in their ability to read irregular words. The children learning to read in Welsh also performed better on a phoneme counting task in March and June than the English‐speaking children. Both groups performed similarly on tests of letter recognition throughout the year. The results suggest that a transparent orthography facilitates reading acquisition and phoneme awareness skills from the earliest stages of reading development onward.     

The nature of phonological awareness throughout the elementary grades: An item response theory perspective

In the present study, the nature of Dutch children's phonological awareness was examined throughout the elementary school grades. Phonological awareness was assessed using five different sets of items that measured rhyming, phoneme identification, phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, and phoneme deletion. A sample of 1405 children from kindergarten through fourth grade participated. Results of modified parallel analysis and analyses within the context of item response theory (IRT) showed phonological awareness to be unidimensional across different tasks and grades. Despite the evidence for a single underlying ability, the cognitive task requirements for the various tasks were found to differ. In addition to some overlap between the item sets, those for rhyming, phoneme identification, and phoneme blending were easier than those for phoneme segmentation and phoneme deletion. The results lend support to the assumption that phonological awareness is a continuum of availability for phonological representations which can range from partial availability (i.e., access) to full availability (i.e., access).     

Letter knowledge precipitates phoneme segmentation,but not phoneme invariance

There is a wealth of evidence linking letter knowledge and phoneme awareness, but there is little research examining the nature of this relationship. This article aims to elucidate this relationship by considering the links between letter knowledge and two sub‐skills of phoneme awareness: phoneme segmentation and phoneme invariance. Two studies are reported. The first study consisted of an eight‐month longitudinal study with 56 pre‐literate children. No child within this group was successful on any phoneme awareness task unless they knew at least one letter. Letter knowledge was also a significant predictor of later phoneme completion and deletion. The hypothesis that letter knowledge is an important precursor for phoneme awareness was then investigated in a small‐scale intervention study with ten children. These children were taught letters and their phoneme awareness was monitored. It was found that letter knowledge was specifically related to the development of phoneme segmentation in pre‐literate children. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed.     

Towards identifying dyslexia in Standard Indonesian: the development of a reading assessment battery

With its transparent orthography, Standard Indonesian is spoken by over 160 million inhabitants and is the primary language of instruction in education and the government in Indonesia. An assessment battery of reading and reading-related skills was developed as a starting point for the diagnosis of dyslexia in beginner learners. Founded on the International Dyslexia Association’s definition of dyslexia, the test battery comprises nine empirically motivated reading and reading-related tasks assessing word reading, pseudoword reading, arithmetic, rapid automatized naming, phoneme deletion, forward and backward digit span, verbal fluency, orthographic choice (spelling), and writing. The test was validated by computing the relationships between the outcomes on the reading-skills and reading-related measures by means of correlation and factor analyses. External variables, i.e., school grades and teacher ratings of the reading and learning abilities of individual students, were also utilized to provide evidence of its construct validity. Four variables were found to be significantly related with reading-skill measures: phonological awareness, rapid naming, spelling, and digit span. The current study on reading development in Standard Indonesian confirms findings from other languages with transparent orthographies and suggests a test battery including preliminary norm scores for screening and assessment of elementary school children learning to read Standard Indonesian.     

Phoneme awareness,vocabulary and word decoding in monolingual and bilingual Dutch children

The aim of this study was to investigate whether bilingually raised children in the Netherlands, who receive literacy instruction in their second language only, show an advantage on Dutch phoneme‐awareness tasks compared with monolingual Dutch‐speaking children. Language performance of a group of 47 immigrant first‐grade children with various different cultural backgrounds and a subsample of 29 Turkish–Dutch bilingual immigrant children was compared with those of 15 first‐grade monolingual native Dutch children from similar low‐socioeconomic backgrounds. All children were tested on Dutch phoneme awareness, vocabulary and word decoding. The Turkish–Dutch children were also tested on Turkish phoneme awareness and Turkish vocabulary. Dutch vocabulary scores of the bilingual children were below that of the monolingual Dutch children. Neither the entire group of bilingual children nor the subsample of Turkish–Dutch children were better or worse on phoneme awareness than monolingual Dutch children. However, Turkish–Dutch children scored better on the Dutch tasks for phoneme awareness and vocabulary than on the Turkish tasks. Language proficiency in the adopted language of bilingual children appears to quickly exceed that of their native language, when no instruction in the first language is provided.     

The importance of letter knowledge in the relationship between phonological awareness and reading

Previous correlational and experimental research has found a positive association between phonological awareness and reading skills. This paper provides an overview of studies in this area and shows that many studies have neglected to control for extraneous variables such as ability, phonological memory, pre‐existing reading skills and letter knowledge. The paper reports on the results of a longitudinal study that took account of these variables when examining the relationship between phonological awareness and reading for a group of children during their first two years at school. Children showed rhyme awareness before they began to read but were unable to perform a phoneme deletion task until after they had developed word‐reading skills. Concurrent and predictive correlations between phonological awareness scores and later reading were often significant and remained so after adjusting for verbal ability or phonological memory. Controlling for letter knowledge, however, reduced most correlations to nonsignificant levels.     

Differences in reading development among Danish beginning-readers with high versus low phonemic awareness on entering grade one

This longitudinal study explored the relation betweenpreschool phoneme awareness and initial reading development. Distinctions were made between formal and functional letter knowledge and between foundation and subsequent phases of reading development. 44 children with at least average language comprehension were followed from the beginning of grade 1(7 years) until the end of grade 2. They were divided intotwo groups: one group of 21 children with high phonemic awareness (HPA) and 23 children with low phonemic awareness (LPA) on entering grade 1. The results showed persistent group differences in favour of the HPA children regarding letter-knowledge and word reading. The results confirmed a significant impact of functional letter knowledge on the length of the foundation period and on later reading development. Length of foundation period was shown to have a significant impact on reading development at the end of grades 1 and 2. It is argued that phonemic awareness is an indispensable catalystin the development of initial word processing ability.     

Follow-up of children with early expressive phonology disorders

Fifty-two children identified at age 4 to 6 years as demonstrating a moderate to severe expressive phonology disorder were followed to the third and fourth grades. Children were classified into two groups based on the presence of an early phonology disorder in isolation (P) or the presence of a phonology disorder with other language problems (PL). At follow-up, articulation measures failed to differentiate the groups; however, the PL group performed more poorly than the P group on measures of phoneme awareness, language, reading decoding, reading comprehension, and spelling. The P group demonstrated poor spelling skills relative to their reading and language abilities, suggesting residual spelling weaknesses in these children. The PL group reported more nuclear family members with speech-language disorders and with reading disorders than the P group. Findings support previous research linking early language disorders with later reading difficulties.     

Cognitive predictors of word reading in Sinhala

We examined whether akshara knowledge, phonological awareness, phonological memory, and RAN predict variability in word and nonword reading skills in Grade 1–4 children (N?=?200) learning to read Sinhala. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that akshara knowledge had the strongest unique association with both word and nonword reading accuracy across grades. Akshara knowledge and RAN predicted word and nonword reading fluency. The impact of phonological memory and syllable awareness on reading was mostly mediated by akshara knowledge, and phoneme awareness was not uniquely associated with word reading skills in any grade. These results suggest that there are multiple cognitive correlates of accurate and fluent word reading in Sinhala, and akshara knowledge is the most important predictor of learning to read words. The findings have implications for the literacy acquisition, development, and instruction in alphasyllabaries.

     

Predicting reading ability over the long term: The changing roles of letter naming,phonological awareness and orthographic processing

A cohort of 92 children was followed through sixth grade to investigate the relationship of preschool skills and first grade phonological awareness to reading and spelling. In particular, the focus was on the changing roles of letter naming, orthographic awareness, and phonological processing in prediction, as reading experience increased. Preschool letter naming was a consistently significant predictor of reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling at each grade level, but the preschool orthographic task contributed most to reading comprehension and spelling at the higher grades. Conversely, the contribution of the first grade phonemic awareness measures to reading skills dropped sharply after third grade, although they continued to contribute to spelling prediction. When preschool precursors of phonological processing were examined, letter naming was found to be a predictor of first and third grade phonemic awareness. Findings confirm the importance of letter naming as a predictor and of the role of phonemic awareness in early reading acquisition, but also highlight the contribution of orthographic processing skills to later reading.     

Stability of Visual Attention Span Performance and Its Relation With Reading Over Time

Visual attention span (VAS) predicts reading performance over and above phonological skills. Given the growing number of studies that include VAS, it is surprising that indications of the stability of VAS performance and its relation with reading over time have not yet been reported. The current study addressed these important issues. Participants were 180 third graders, 131 of whom were reassessed in Grade 4. Results indicated that VAS (whole report for letters) accounts for variance in reading over and above phoneme awareness and rapid automatized naming. VAS performance was highly stable over time, and VAS and reading were related both concurrently and longitudinally. However, controlling for autoregressive effects, the effects of Grade 3 VAS on Grade 4 reading, and vice versa, were not significant. These findings encourage including VAS in future studies but indicate that there is as of yet little evidence for VAS being causally related to reading performance.     

Developmental changes in the contributions of phonological processing skills to Chinese character reading and arithmetic

This study examined the associations of phonological processing skills with reading and arithmetic ability in Chinese kindergartners (Mage = 5.56 years), third graders (Mage = 9.72 years), and fifth graders (Mage = 11.75 years) (N = 413) of Han descent. The results showed that phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) showed stronger relations than phonological memory with reading and arithmetic across grades. Furthermore, the associations of phonological awareness and RAN with reading were much stronger in kindergartners than in primary school children, whereas their relationships with arithmetic remained stable across grades. Among phonological skills, phonological awareness has a unique influence on arithmetic that is independent of Chinese character reading in third-graders and kindergartners. In contrast, RAN uniquely explained the variation in arithmetic skills in fifth graders when reading was statistically controlled for. These findings have important implications for understanding the co-development of reading and arithmetic across grades and raise the possibility of training in phonological awareness and/or RAN to help children at risk for learning disabilities.     

Enhancing Phonological Awareness and Letter Knowledge in Preschool Children with Down Syndrome

This study investigated the effectiveness of a phonological awareness intervention for 4‐year‐old children with Down syndrome. Seven children with Down syndrome who attended an early intervention centre participated in the intervention. Their performance on measures of phonological awareness (initial phoneme identity), letter name and sound knowledge, and print concepts pre‐intervention and post‐intervention, was compared with that of a randomly selected group of age‐matched peers with typical development. The intervention involved print referencing techniques whereby the children’s parents were instructed to bring the children’s attention to targeted letters and sounds within words and to draw their attention to the initial phonemes in words during daily shared book reading activities. The intervention was presented for a 6‐week period. The results indicated a significant treatment effect on phonological awareness and letter knowledge for the children with Down syndrome. Additionally, above‐chance performance on the initial phoneme identity task was contingent on letter knowledge of the particular phoneme. Individual profiles of the children with Down syndrome pre‐intervention and post‐intervention are presented, and implications for the management of preschool children approaching the age of integration into mainstream primary schools are discussed.