Phonemic Awareness Tasks Research Articles

From spelling to reading: An intervention program with children at risk of reading failure

This study aimed to assess the impact of an interactive spelling program on reading acquisition of children at risk of developing reading difficulties as well as to assess its effect on spelling and phonemic awareness. From an initial pool of 144 first-grade children attending four Portuguese primary schools, 53 children with low performances in letter knowledge and phonemic awareness tasks, and considered by their teachers to be at risk of developing reading difficulties, were selected. These children were randomly assigned to three groups: an experimental group that underwent an interactive spelling program, a comparison group that underwent a phonological awareness program, and a control group that underwent a copying program. The programs, conducted in pairs, comprised 12 sessions lasting 20 to 30 min twice a week. The pretest and posttest included word reading, word spelling, and phonemic awareness assessments. Data analysis showed that the spelling group significantly outperformed the other groups across all measures except in the phonemic awareness task, where there were no differences with the phonological group. The word copying group consistently yielded the lowest results. Unlike the other two groups, the posttest results of the experimental group also reached the class average in word reading. For ethical reasons, after the final assessments the control group underwent a version of the interactive spelling program. This study suggests that spelling activities can contribute significantly to reading acquisition and can serve as a valuable pedagogical tool to proactively address challenges in learning to read.

Evaluating Phonemic Awareness and Orthographic Mapping With the Woodcock–Johnson IV

Although phonemic awareness is an essential skill in learning to decode written words, practitioners may question which phonemic awareness tasks best operationalize their relationship with orthographic mapping, the process that converts a decoded word into one instantly recognized on sight. Tests from the Woodcock– Johnson IV were used to evaluate the effects of phonemic awareness tasks and vocabulary on measures of pseudoword decoding, word reading, and spelling in three age groups (ages 6 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 to 19 years) within the WJ IV normative sample ( N = 4082). Results from path analysis indicated the effects of phonemic awareness tasks and vocabulary varied depending on age and reading task type with mixed results based on theoretical expectations. Results from the 9 to 13 age group appeared closest to conforming to hypotheses. We discuss implications of measuring phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling in the context of comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.

Phoneme Representation and Articulatory Impairment: Insights from Adults with Comorbid Motor Coordination Disorder and Dyslexia.

Phonemic processing skills are impaired both in children and adults with dyslexia. Since phoneme representation development is based on articulatory gestures, it is likely that these gestures influence oral reading-related skills as assessed through phonemic awareness tasks. In our study, fifty-two young dyslexic adults, with and without motor impairment, and fifty-nine skilled readers performed reading, phonemic awareness, and articulatory tasks. The two dyslexic groups exhibited slower articulatory rates than skilled readers and the comorbid dyslexic group presenting with an additional difficulty in respiratory control (reduced speech proportion and increased pause duration). Two versions of the phoneme awareness task (PAT) with pseudoword strings were administered: a classical version under time pressure and a delayed version in which access to phonemic representations and articulatory programs was facilitated. The two groups with dyslexia were outperformed by the control group in both versions. Although the two groups with dyslexia performed equally well on the classical PAT, the comorbid group performed significantly less efficiently on the delayed PAT, suggesting an additional contribution of articulatory impairment in the task for this group. Overall, our results suggest that impaired phoneme representations in dyslexia may be explained, at least partially, by articulatory deficits affecting access to them.

Vowel categorization accuracy and its relationship to phonemic awareness

Cross-language speech perception studies regularly employ categorization tasks to determine listeners’ repertoire of phonological categories. In these tasks, participants select a phoneme from a list of letters or keywords to indicate which speech category they heard. However, recent studies have shown poor categorization accuracy when native (L1) English speakers are asked to categorize English vowels. Categorization tasks require phonemic awareness (PA), the explicit knowledge that words consist of segments, which is acquired alongside alphabetic literacy. Individual differences in PA may account for variability in L1 categorization accuracy. That is, participants with poor phonemic awareness may have difficulty explicitly identifying phonemes in a categorization task, particularly for English vowels, where grapheme-phoneme correspondences are relatively opaque. To test whether PA is related to categorization accuracy, 115 L1 English listeners completed an L1 vowel categorization task and three PA tasks: phoneme counting, deletion, and reversal. Strong correlations were observed between categorization accuracy and all three PA tasks, suggesting PA may account for a substantial proportion of individual variability in vowel categorization tasks. This finding questions the utility of the categorization task for determining listeners’ phonemic categories and has further implications for assessing second language speech categories.

Effects of a Supplemental Spanish Phonological Awareness Intervention on Latinx Preschoolers' Dual Language Emergent Literacy Skills.

Purpose Preschoolers' phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK) skills are two of the strongest predictors of future reading. Despite evidence that providing at-risk preschoolers with timely emergent literacy interventions can prevent academic difficulties, there is a scarcity of research focusing on Latinx preschoolers who are dual language learners. Despite evidence of benefits of providing Latinxs with Spanish emergent literacy instruction, few studies include preschoolers. This study examined the effects of a supplemental Spanish PA and AK intervention on the dual emergent literacy skills of at-risk Latinx preschoolers. Method A multiple probe design across four units of instruction evaluated the effects of a Spanish supplemental emergent literacy intervention that explicitly facilitated generalizations to English. Four Latinx preschoolers with limited emergent literacy skills in Spanish and English participated in this study. Bilingual researchers delivered scripted lessons targeting PA and AK skills in individual or small groups for 12-17 weeks. Results Children made large gains as each PA skill was introduced into intervention and generalized the PA skills they learned from Spanish to English. They also improved their English initial sound identification skills, a phonemic awareness task, when instruction was delivered in Spanish but with English words. Children made small to moderate gains in their Spanish letter naming and letter-sound correspondence skills and in generalizing this knowledge to English. Conclusion These findings provide preliminary evidence Latinx preschoolers who are dual language learners benefit from emergent literacy instruction that promotes their bilingual and biliterate development.

The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills and Spelling in Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures.

Purpose Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual's linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults' spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults' spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults' linguistic awareness skills differentially predict spelling outcomes based on the scoring method employed. Method Sixty undergraduate college students who were determined to be average readers as measured by a word reading and contextual word reading task were administered a spelling task as well as morphological, orthographic, phonemic, and syntactic awareness tasks. Results All four scoring methods were highly correlated suggesting high concurrent validity among the measures. Two linguistic awareness skills, morphological awareness and syntactic awareness, predicted spelling performance on both the dichotomous and continuous scoring methods. Contrastively, phonemic awareness and orthographic awareness predicted spelling performance only when spelling was scored using a continuous measure error analysis. Conclusions The results of this study confirm that multiple linguistic awareness skills are important for spelling in adults who are average readers. The results also highlight the need for using continuous measures of spelling when planning intervention or instruction, particularly in the areas of orthographic and phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness in an oral German-origin Brazilian language: a study of Hunsrückisch and German bilinguals

Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice and manipulate language sounds in their base form (phonemes). It is associated with emerging literacy skills and predictive of skilled reading. The aim of the present study was to investigate phonemic awareness in German and its association with speaking a German-origin, but predominantly unwritten language. We investigated speakers of Hunsrückisch, a Brazilian minority language predominantly used in its spoken form. Participants were literate Brazilian Portuguese speakers who spoke Hunsrückisch and German or Hunsrückisch only. The results show faster, more accurate performance in the phonemic awareness task among participants who spoke Hunsrückisch and German, relative to those who spoke Hunsrückisch only. Participants who spoke Hunsrückisch only were able to perform the phonemic awareness tasks but having learned to read and write in German allowed for faster, more accurate performance, especially in relation to pseudowords.

Effects of explicit L2 vocabulary instruction on developing kindergarten children’s target and general vocabulary and phonological awareness

The introduction of second language (L2) education in kindergartens is ubiquitous in many places globally; nevertheless, research in these settings is scarce compared with that on older learners. L2 vocabulary development is especially germane to these very young learners, rendering this a research-worthy topic. The present study examined the effects of researcher-designed explicit vocabulary instruction compared with implicit instruction on English-as-a-second-language participants’ (N = 157) gains in not only the target vocabulary items, but also general vocabulary as well as phonological awareness. Statistically significant differences were found in all vocabulary tasks and the phonemic awareness task with small to large effect sizes. These showed that, in addition to the target vocabulary, the participants receiving explicit vocabulary instruction also had greater gains in receptive and expressive general vocabulary and phonemic awareness. The article culminates in delineating the children’s differential achievements, followed by a brief discussion of the limitations and implications.

Profile of hyperlexia: Reconciling conflicts through a systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract It is believed that children with poor decoding skills and adequate listening comprehension skills exhibit a dyslexia-type syndrome. However, there is no consensus relating to the other problem that arises: children who have exceptional decoding but poor listening comprehension. Sometimes, these children have been labeled as “individuals exhibiting hyperlexia.” There is no clear understanding of the following aspects of hyperlexia: a) population criteria (e.g., typically vs. atypically developing children), b) specific criteria (e.g., precocity, definition of “good decoding”) on their associations with reading, and c) the applicability of reading theories to hyperlexia (e.g., phonemic awareness is critical in decoding; both decoding and listening comprehension contribute to reading comprehension). Therefore, we conducted a systematic and meta-analytic review to explore these questions. We found that despite good decoding and verbal short-term memory skills, individuals with hyperlexia exhibit poor listening, verbal working memory, and reading comprehension skills. Also, all but three studies identified hyperlexics from atypical developing populations; however, criteria to define “good decoding” varied and the onset of precocious decoding behavior was not consistently reported. Our meta-regression analysis suggests that decoding still predicted the performance of reading comprehension after controlling for listening comprehension, suggesting that the variations of defining “good decoding” led to different reading comprehension profiles (e.g., mild vs. severe reading comprehension deficit). Further, listening comprehension but not decoding is related to phonemic awareness, which may be due to the difficulty of understanding phonemic awareness tasks. However, it may also suggest that the current decoding theory is not applied to hyperlexia. Future suggestions for hyperlexia research are provided.

Bilingual advantage? Literacy and phonological awareness in Polish-speaking early elementary school children learning English simultaneously

In most studies, paired bilingual programs turned out to be more effective in L2 (usually English) literacy acquisition than other types of programs. L1 reading proficiency was shown to foster second language reading acquisition across many languages. However, little is known about L1 reading acquisition in bilingual programs. The study examines the effect of a paired-bilingual education program conducted in Polish (L1) and English (L2) on word reading fluency in Polish as L1 after an average of 1 and 2.5 years of literacy training. 61 Polish children obtaining Polish-only literacy training and 54 children obtaining the paired-bilingual Polish-English literacy training completed word and pseudoword reading and onset-rhyme (rhyme production) and phoneme awareness (phoneme deletion and phonemic differentiation) tasks in Polish. Also Rapid Automatized Naming (RAN) and English (L2) word fluency were tested. A strong main effect of the literacy level was observed, pointing to a progressive tendency in reading efficiency in both groups of children. Moreover, a significant interaction between the group and literacy level was documented. Beginner readers (after one year of literacy instruction) from the monolingual literacy group showed a higher word reading proficiency than students from the paired-bilingual. However, after two and a half years of literacy training children from the paired-bilingual group achieved significantly higher results in Polish word reading than their peers from the monolingual group. Phonological awareness predicted reading fluency in both groups, but no significant differences between the groups were found suggesting other predictors to be responsible for the bilingual group’s advantage.

Conciencia fonémica y memoria fonológica en niños en proceso de alfabetización

Se examinan las relaciones entre conciencia fonémica y memoria fonológica en el principio y el final del primer grado escolar. En un diseño transeccional correlacional participaron dos grupos muestrales. El Grupo 1, compuesto por 25 niños (edad media de 6 años, 3 meses), de idéntica procedencia sociocultural, que no presentaban retraso mental, trastornos específicos del lenguaje, ni alteraciones neurológicas, y que iniciaban el primer año escolar. El Grupo 2, de 25 niños (edad media de 6 años, 9 meses), de características idénticas, pero que finalizaban el primer año escolar. Para evaluar la conciencia fonémica se administraron pruebas de segmentación fonológica, elisión y unión de fonemas; la memoria fonológica fue examinada mediante pruebas de retención de palabras y pseudopalabras. Los resultados muestran una correlación positiva moderadamente alta entre ambas variables en los dos grupos, observándose una progresión gradual de la actuación de los niños, particularmente en las tareas de conciencia fonémica.

청각적 말소리 자극과 시각적 글자 자극 제시방법에 따른 5, 6세 일반아동의 음소인식 수행력 비교

The phonemic awareness tasks (phonemic synthesis, phonemic elision, phonemic segmentation) by auditory presentation and visual presentation were conducted to 40 children who are 5 and 6 years old. The scores and error types in the sub-tasks by two presentations were compared to each other. Also, the correlation between the performances of phonemic awareness sub-tasks in two presentation conditions were examined. As a result, 6-year-old group showed significantly higher phonemic awareness scores than 5-year-old group. Both group showed significantly higher scores in visual presentation than auditory presentation. While the performance under the visual presentation was significantly lower especially in the segmentation than the other two tasks, there was no significant difference among sub-tasks under the auditory presentation. 5-year-old group showed significantly more 'no response' errors than 6-year-old group and 6-year-old group showed significantly more 'phoneme substitution' and 'phoneme omission' errors than 5-year-old group. Significantly more 'phoneme omission' errors were observed in the segmentation than the elision task, and significantly more 'phoneme addition' errors were observed in elision than the synthesis task. Lastly, there are positive correlations in auditory and visual synthesis tasks, auditory and visual elision tasks, and auditory and visual segmentation tasks. Summarizing the results, children tend to depend on orthographic knowledge when acquiring the initial phonemic awareness. Therefore, the result of this research would support the position that the orthographic knowledge affects the improvement of phonemic awareness.

Relationships between Categorical Perception of Phonemes, Phoneme Awareness, and Visual Attention Span in Developmental Dyslexia.

We tested the hypothesis that the categorical perception deficit of speech sounds in developmental dyslexia is related to phoneme awareness skills, whereas a visual attention (VA) span deficit constitutes an independent deficit. Phoneme awareness tasks, VA span tasks and categorical perception tasks of phoneme identification and discrimination using a d/t voicing continuum were administered to 63 dyslexic children and 63 control children matched on chronological age. Results showed significant differences in categorical perception between the dyslexic and control children. Significant correlations were found between categorical perception skills, phoneme awareness and reading. Although VA span correlated with reading, no significant correlations were found between either categorical perception or phoneme awareness and VA span. Mediation analyses performed on the whole dyslexic sample suggested that the effect of categorical perception on reading might be mediated by phoneme awareness. This relationship was independent of the participants’ VA span abilities. Two groups of dyslexic children with a single phoneme awareness or a single VA span deficit were then identified. The phonologically impaired group showed lower categorical perception skills than the control group but categorical perception was similar in the VA span impaired dyslexic and control children. The overall findings suggest that the link between categorical perception, phoneme awareness and reading is independent from VA span skills. These findings provide new insights on the heterogeneity of developmental dyslexia. They suggest that phonological processes and VA span independently affect reading acquisition.

Evidences of Factorial Structure and Precision of Phonemic Awareness Tasks (TCFe)

AbstractTo assess phonological awareness - a decisive skill for learning to read and write - it is necessary to provide evidence about an instrument construct to present trustworthy parameters for both empirical research and the development of educational intervention and rehabilitation programs. In Brazil, at this moment, there are no studies regarding the internal structure for tests of phonological awareness. This article shows the factorial validity of a test of phonological awareness composed by three sub-tests: two tasks of subtraction of initial phoneme and one of phonemic segmentation. The multidimensional confirmatory factorial analysis was applied to a sample of 176 Brazilian students ( Mage= 9.3 years) from the first to fifth grade of elementary school. Results indicated a well-adjusted model, with items of intermediate difficulty and high factor loadings; thus, this corroboratedthe internal structure and well-designed theoretical conception.

Phonemic Awareness Contributes to Text Reading Fluency: Evidence From Eye Movements

.Although phonemic awareness is a known predictor of early decoding and word recognition, less is known about relationships between phonemic awareness and text reading fluency. This longitudinal study is the first to investigate this relationship by measuring eye movements during picture matching tasks and during silent sentence reading. Time spent looking at the correct target during phonemic awareness and receptive spelling tasks gauged the efficiency of phonological and orthographic processes. Children's eye movements during sentence reading provided a direct measure of silent reading fluency for comprehended text. Results indicate that children who processed the phonemic awareness targets more slowly in Grade 2 tended to be slower readers in Grade 3. Processing difficulty during a receptive spelling task was related to reading fluency within Grade 2. Findings suggest that inefficient phonemic processing contributes to poor silent reading fluency after second grade.

SEPARATING THE EFFECTS OF ACOUSTIC AND PHONETIC FACTORS IN LINGUISTIC PROCESSING WITH IMPOVERISHED SIGNALS BY ADULTS AND CHILDREN.

Cochlear implants allow many individuals with profound hearing loss to understand spoken language, even though the impoverished signals provided by these devices poorly preserve acoustic attributes long believed to support recovery of phonetic structure. Consequently questions may be raised regarding whether traditional psycholinguistic theories rely too heavily on phonetic segments to explain linguistic processing while ignoring potential roles of other forms of acoustic structure. This study tested that possibility. Adults and children (8 years old) performed two tasks: one involving explicit segmentation, phonemic awareness, and one involving a linguistic task thought to operate more efficiently with well-defined phonetic segments, short-term memory. Stimuli were unprocessed signals (UP), amplitude envelopes (AE) analogous to implant signals, and unprocessed signals in noise (NOI) which provided a degraded signal for comparison. Adults' results for short-term recall were similar for UP and NOI, but worse for AE stimuli. The phonemic awareness task revealed the opposite pattern across AE and NOI. Children's results for short-term recall showed similar decrements in performance for AE and NOI compared to UP, even though only NOI stimuli showed diminished results for segmentation. Conclusions were that perhaps traditional accounts are too focused on phonetic segments, something implant designers and clinicians need to consider.

Developmental dyslexia: exploring how much phonological and visual attention span disorders are linked to simultaneous auditory processing deficits

The simultaneous auditory processing skills of 17 dyslexic children and 17 skilled readers were measured using a dichotic listening task. Results showed that the dyslexic children exhibited difficulties reporting syllabic material when presented simultaneously. As a measure of simultaneous visual processing, visual attention span skills were assessed in the dyslexic children. We presented the dyslexic children with a phonological short-term memory task and a phonemic awareness task to quantify their phonological skills. Visual attention spans correlated positively with individual scores obtained on the dichotic listening task while phonological skills did not correlate with either dichotic scores or visual attention span measures. Moreover, all the dyslexic children with a dichotic listening deficit showed a simultaneous visual processing deficit, and a substantial number of dyslexic children exhibited phonological processing deficits whether or not they exhibited low dichotic listening scores. These findings suggest that processing simultaneous auditory stimuli may be impaired in dyslexic children regardless of phonological processing difficulties and be linked to similar problems in the visual modality.

Bodies and codas or core syllables plus appendices? Evidence for a developmental theory of subsyllabic division preference

Two experiments examining the subsyllabic division behaviors of Chinese-speaking children learning English as a foreign language (EFL) are reported. In Experiment 1, target phonemes of monosyllabic English nonwords were varied in phonotactic context (e.g., (C)VC vs. (C)CVC), marginality (e.g., (C)CVC vs. C(C)VC), and/or position (e.g., (C)VC vs. CV(C)) in phoneme deletion and isolation tasks, with confounds such as global similarity, vowel length, and targets’ sonority controlled. The fourth graders found the initial obstruent more difficult to isolate when it constituted the onset itself, i.e., (C)VC, than when it was part of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC; no such difference was observed (non)word-finally, however. The results thus failed to support a subsyllabic preference for either onsets and rimes or bodies and codas. In Experiment 2, 49 second graders were tested on two other sets of phoneme awareness tasks and similar results were obtained. Items of one task were adapted from Hulme et al. (2002), in which the English-speaking first graders found the initial phoneme of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC, more difficult to delete than the cluster as a whole, i.e., (CC)VC. The opposite patterns were observed with the Chinese EFL learners in Experiment 2, who found instead the initial consonant easier to remove. Taken together, the results suggested that Chinese-speaking EFL children process an English syllable as a linear combination of an intact core syllable (i.e., CV) plus its appendices. In both experiments, moreover, only performance in segmenting core syllable, but not that of segmenting appendices from the core syllable, predicted decoding success, a pattern again opposite to that of Hulme et al. (2002). The seemingly conflicting results were nevertheless consistent with a general developmental account of intra-syllabic division preference.

C066 The early vocal development of children with cochlear implants during dyadic interaction with their mothers

Two experiments examining the subsyllabic division behaviors of Chinese-speaking children learning English as a foreign language (EFL) are reported. In Experiment 1, target phonemes of monosyllabic English nonwords were varied in phonotactic context (e.g., (C)VC vs. (C)CVC), marginality (e.g., (C)CVC vs. C(C)VC), and/or position (e.g., (C)VC vs. CV(C)) in phoneme deletion and isolation tasks, with confounds such as global similarity, vowel length, and targets’ sonority controlled. The fourth graders found the initial obstruent more difficult to isolate when it constituted the onset itself, i.e., (C)VC, than when it was part of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC; no such difference was observed (non)word-finally, however. The results thus failed to support a subsyllabic preference for either onsets and rimes or bodies and codas. In Experiment 2, 49 second graders were tested on two other sets of phoneme awareness tasks and similar results were obtained. Items of one task were adapted from Hulme et al. (2002), in which the English-speaking first graders found the initial phoneme of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC, more difficult to delete than the cluster as a whole, i.e., (CC)VC. The opposite patterns were observed with the Chinese EFL learners in Experiment 2, who found instead the initial consonant easier to remove. Taken together, the results suggested that Chinese-speaking EFL children process an English syllable as a linear combination of an intact core syllable (i.e., CV) plus its appendices. In both experiments, moreover, only performance in segmenting core syllable, but not that of segmenting appendices from the core syllable, predicted decoding success, a pattern again opposite to that of Hulme et al. (2002). The seemingly conflicting results were nevertheless consistent with a general developmental account of intra-syllabic division preference.

C065 Speech intelligibility of Nucleus CI24 patients following upgrade to CP810 sound processor

Two experiments examining the subsyllabic division behaviors of Chinese-speaking children learning English as a foreign language (EFL) are reported. In Experiment 1, target phonemes of monosyllabic English nonwords were varied in phonotactic context (e.g., (C)VC vs. (C)CVC), marginality (e.g., (C)CVC vs. C(C)VC), and/or position (e.g., (C)VC vs. CV(C)) in phoneme deletion and isolation tasks, with confounds such as global similarity, vowel length, and targets’ sonority controlled. The fourth graders found the initial obstruent more difficult to isolate when it constituted the onset itself, i.e., (C)VC, than when it was part of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC; no such difference was observed (non)word-finally, however. The results thus failed to support a subsyllabic preference for either onsets and rimes or bodies and codas. In Experiment 2, 49 second graders were tested on two other sets of phoneme awareness tasks and similar results were obtained. Items of one task were adapted from Hulme et al. (2002), in which the English-speaking first graders found the initial phoneme of a clustered onset, i.e., (C)CVC, more difficult to delete than the cluster as a whole, i.e., (CC)VC. The opposite patterns were observed with the Chinese EFL learners in Experiment 2, who found instead the initial consonant easier to remove. Taken together, the results suggested that Chinese-speaking EFL children process an English syllable as a linear combination of an intact core syllable (i.e., CV) plus its appendices. In both experiments, moreover, only performance in segmenting core syllable, but not that of segmenting appendices from the core syllable, predicted decoding success, a pattern again opposite to that of Hulme et al. (2002). The seemingly conflicting results were nevertheless consistent with a general developmental account of intra-syllabic division preference.