Examines whether kindergartners who were taught to segment words into phonemes either by monitoring articulatory gestures or by manipulating blocks would benefit in their ability to read and spell. Suggests that awareness of articulatory gestures facilitates the activation of graphophonemic connections that helps children identify written words…

This article reviews the literature on the importance of phonological awareness within the context of language/literacy learning and discusses the developmental continuum of phoneme awareness skills. Specific techniques are suggested to guide the speech-language pathologist in the assessment of phonological awareness skills. (Author/DB)

Describes letterbox lessons in which children learn the alphabetic code, spelling words by placing letters in boxes that show the number of phonemes in words, and later reading what they have spelled. Discusses materials, how to teach a letterbox lesson, and effectiveness of these lessons. (SR)

Examines whether letter-name knowledge facilitates learning spellings in which the names of one or more letters can be heard in the pronunciation of the words. Results suggest preschool Portuguese children who know the names of the letters can learn to read by processing letter-sound relations in words; however, children may not use this mechanism…

Examines the role of early reading instruction on the nonword reading strategies employed by beginning readers. Describes how three groups of children were following either: the Early Reading Research project; the National Literacy Project; or usual classroom practice. Suggest that early reading instruction does have a significant impact on early…

Considers if Hispanic and non-Hispanic second graders acquire knowledge of structural features of words in the same order and at the same rate. Reveals that both groups appear to be acquiring knowledge of the structural features of words at different rates, but in a roughly similar order with Hispanic learners lagging behind the non-Hispanic…

In Experiment 1, it was found that 5-year-old new school entrants taught by a synthetic phonics method had better reading, spelling and phonemic awareness than two groups taught analytic phonics. The synthetic phonics children were the only ones that could read by analogy, and they also showed better reading of irregular words and nonwords. For…

This study examined a critical learning outcome of behavioral fluency, "application." Application refers to the combination of two or more behaviors that form a composite or compound behavior. Three students with specific learning disabilities in reading learned two behaviors, how to write a set of letter sounds they heard and orally segment words…

This study examined the psycholinguistic implications of using either of two different types of orthography--syllabic and roman--in Native language programs for Cree children with regard to readability, learnability, and the transfer of reading skills to and from reading in an official language (English or French). This study can also be applied…

The Report of the National Reading Panel (2000) explains that phonemic awareness instruction and phonics instruction are highly beneficial for students learning to read. In the updated second edition, Edmund V. Starrett provides educators with guidance on teaching phonics as part of a well-planned reading program. This reference book presents the…

Background: It is widely recognized that effective interventions for poor reading involve training in phoneme awareness and letter-sound knowledge, linked in the context of reading books. From the applied perspective, it is important to gather data on the effectiveness of different forms of implementation of literacy support within this framework.…

As educators continue to debate the value of phonic versus meaning-based approaches to reading, a significant number of children continue to fail to learn to read. One of the fundamental tasks facing the beginning reader is to develop the realization that speech can be segmented and that these segmented units can be represented by printed forms. A…

Large differences exist among individuals in their ability to process speech sounds within syllables and words, and this ability is crucial for reading and spelling alphabetically beyond a very elementary level. The conception that speech is made up of segments (phonemes) is natural to those who read and spell alphabetically, but arguably: (1)…

Paul Hanna (1966), in his classic spelling study, developed frequency tables that described the relative frequency of the letters (graphemes) used to represent the major English sounds (phonemes). By restructuring the Hanna tables, a set of tables may be developed for estimating levels of reading difficulty based upon the relative frequency of the…

A limited analysis of alternative approaches to phonemic-level word attack instruction is provided in this document. The instruction segment begins with training in letter-sound correspondences for which mastery of certain skills is assumed. Instruction ends with the decoding of novel items having a consonant-vowel-consonant construction. Contents…