Preventing reading failure: a follow-up study

Abstract

This study examines the longitudinal effects of both pre-school phonological and morphological awareness training on subsequent reading development. Children who have received pre-school training in phonological skills or morphological skills perform better in some reading measures in grades 2 and 3 than students who have not received this training. Mothers' educational level predicts some aspects of reading development, especially the ability to identify orthographic structures. There was also a tendency for children of highly educated mothers, who entered the study with relatively well developed linguistic awareness skills, to profit most from morphological awareness training in terms of reading development. In contrast, children of less well educated mothers tended to profit most from phonological awareness training. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.