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Phonological Awareness (
Phonological Awareness (
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Assessment and
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Instruction in
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Phonological
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Awareness
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1999
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Florida Department of Education
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Division of Public Schools and Community Education
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Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services
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This is one of many publications available through the Bureau of Instructional Support and
Community Services, Florida Department of Education, designed to assist school districts, state
agencies which support educational programs, and parents in the provision of special programs.
For additional information on this publication, or for a list of available publications, contact the
Clearinghouse Information Center, Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services,
Division of Public Schools and Community Education, Florida Department of Education, Room
622 Turlington Bldg., Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400.
Suncom: 278-1879
e-mail: cicbiscs@mail.doe.state.fl.us
website: http://www.firn.edu/doe/commhome/
Assessment and
Instruction in
Phonological
Awareness
Reprinted 2002
Florida Department of Education
Division of Public Schools and Community Education
Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services
Florida Department of Education
Bureau of Instructional Support and Community Services
This document was written by Joseph K. Torgesen and Patricia G. Mathis, Florida State
University.
This document was edited and designed by Carmy Greenwood, Program Specialist,
Clearinghouse Information Center
Copyright
State of Florida
Department of State
1999
Authorization for reproduction is hereby granted to the state system of public education as
defined in section 228.041(1), Florida Statutes. No authorization is granted for distribution or
reproduction outside the state system of public education without prior approval in writing.
Assessment and
Instruction in
Phonological
Awareness
By
References ____________________________________________________________________________ 71
v
Preface
The discovery of the importance of phone-
mic awareness in early reading is generally
thought to be one of the most important
breakthroughs in reading instruction in
the last 20 years. This manual is written to
help teachers incorporate assessment and
instruction of phonological awareness into
their pre-reading and reading curriculum.
—continued
vii
The fourth section presents descriptive
information about a range of computer
software marketed for home and school
use in building pre-reading skills in young
children.
viii
Phonological
Some of the information in this section
overlaps with that found in the pamphlet
“What Every Teacher Should Know about
What Is Phonological
Awareness?
In order to understand the concept of
phonological awareness, we must first
know what a phoneme is. A phoneme is
the smallest unit of sound in our language
that makes a difference in a word’s mean-
ing. For example, the word cat has three
phonemes, /k/- /a/- /t/. By changing the
first phoneme, we can produce the word
bat. Changing the second phoneme creates
the word cot, and we can obtain the word
cab by altering the final phoneme. Words
in English (in fact, in all languages) are
composed of strings of phonemes. This is
fortunate, because it allows us to create all
the words we will ever need by using vari-
ous combinations of just 44 different
speech sounds!
1
cal endowment allows us to process the involves learning about individual pho-
complex phonological information in nemes themselves. As children acquire
speech without actually being aware of the more and more conscious knowledge of the
individual phonemes themselves. This is distinctive features of phonemes (how they
one of the human abilities that makes sound when they occur in words, or how
acquiring speech a natural process, so that they feel when they are pronounced) they
almost everyone in the world learns to become more adept at noticing their iden-
speak a language with very little direct tity and order when they occur in words.
instruction. However, because phonemes For example, while children in the first
are represented by letters in print, learning semester of first grade might be able to
to read requires that children become isolate and identify the first or last sound
consciously aware of phonemes as indi- of a word like man, by the end of first
vidual segments in words. In fact, phono- grade, most children can easily, and rela-
logical awareness is most commonly tively automatically, segment all the
defined as one’s sensitivity to, or ex- sounds in a more complex word like clap.
plicit awareness of, the phonological Children must acquire knowledge of the
structure of words in one’s language. In distinctive features of phonemes so they
short, it involves the ability to notice, can recognize them when they occur with
think about, or manipulate the indi- slightly varied pronunciations in different
vidual sounds in words. words. For instance, the sound /l/ varies
slightly in its pronunciation depending
One of the early signs of emerging sensitiv- upon whether it occurs at the beginning of
ity to the phonological structure of words a spoken word such as last, as the second
is the ability to play rhyming games and sound in a consonant blend as in flat, in
activities. In order to tell whether two the middle of a word, such as shelving, or
words rhyme, the child must attend to the in a final blend such as in fault. Children
sounds in words rather than their mean- will be able to understand the way the
ing. In addition, the child must focus letters represent sounds in these words
attention on only one part of a word rather better if they recognize that the same
than the way it sounds as a whole. As phoneme, /l/, is represented by the letter l
children grow in awareness of the pho- in each of these words.
nemes in words, they become able to judge
whether words have the same first or last Why Is Phonological
sounds, and with further development,
they become able to actually isolate and Awareness Important in
pronounce the first, last, or middle sounds Learning to Read?
in words. At its highest levels of develop-
ment, awareness of individual phonemes in Phonological awareness is important be-
words is shown by the ability to separately cause it strongly supports learning how
pronounce the sounds in even multi- the words in our language are represented
syllable words, or to tell exactly how two in print. When children learn to read, they
words like task and tacks are different (the must acquire two different kinds of skills.
order of the last two phonemes is re- They must learn how to identify printed
versed). words, and they must learn how to com-
prehend written material. Their major
Acquiring phonological awareness actually challenge when they first enter school is to
involves learning two kinds of things about learn to accurately identify printed words,
language. First, it involves learning that and this brings them face to face with the
words can be divided into segments of alphabetic principle. English is an alpha-
sound smaller than a syllable. Second, it betic language, meaning that words are
2
represented in print roughly at the level of conducted over the past twenty years, we
phonemes. For example, the word cat has now know that the answer to this question
three phonemes, and three letters are used is very strongly in the affirmative! Children
to represent them; the word which also has who quickly come to understand the rela-
three phonemes, but five letters are used tionships between letters and phonemes,
to represent them. and who learn to utilize this information as
an aide to identifying words in print, al-
In our language, the alphabetic principle most invariably become better readers
presents two important learning challenges than children who have difficulty acquiring
to children. First, individual phonemes are these skills (Adams, 1990; Beck & Juel,
not readily apparent as individual seg- 1995).
ments in normal speech. When we say the
word dog, for example, the phonemes There are at least three ways that phono-
overlap with one another (they are logical awareness is important in learning
coarticulated), so that we hear a single beginning word reading skills.
burst of sound rather than three individual
segments. Coarticulating the phonemes in • It helps children understand the
words (e.g., starting to pronounce the alphabetic principle. Without at least
second phoneme, /r/, in the word frost a beginning level of phonological aware-
while we are still saying the first phoneme, ness, children have no way of under-
/f/) makes speech fluent, but it also standing how the words from their oral
makes it hard for many children to become language are represented in print.
aware of phonemes as individual segments Unless they understand that words
of sound within words. have sound segments at the level of the
phoneme, they cannot take advantage
The second challenge presented by the of an alphabetic script. They will also
alphabetic principle in our language is that not be able to understand the rationale
there is not always a regular one-to-one for learning individual letter sounds,
correspondence between letters and pho- and the common strategy of “sounding
nemes. For example, some phonemes are out” words in beginning reading will not
represented by more than one letter (e.g., make sense to them.
ch, sh, wh, ai, oi). In addition, sometimes
the phoneme represented by a letter • It helps children notice the regular
changes, depending on other letters in the ways that letters represent sounds in
word (not vs. note, fit vs. fight, not vs. words. If children can notice all four
notion), or pronunciation of parts of some phonemes in the spoken word flat, it
words may not follow any regular letter- helps them understand the way the
phoneme correspondence patterns, such letters in the written word correspond
as in yacht or choir. to the sounds. This ability to notice the
match between the letters and sounds
If understanding and utilizing the alpha- in words has two potential benefits to
betic principle in reading words presents children learning to read. First, it
such learning challenges for children, the reinforces knowledge of individual
obvious question, and one that has been letter-sound correspondences, and
repeatedly asked over the last century, is second, it helps in forming mental
whether it is really necessary for children representations of words so they can be
to understand the principle and master its accurately recognized when they are
use in order to become good readers. On encountered in print again. Research
the basis of research on reading, reading has shown that the associations chil-
development, and reading instruction dren form between the letters and
3
sounds in words help create the kind of of phonological awareness in kindergarten
sight-word representations that are the is a very strong predictor of children’s
basis of fluent reading (Ehri, in press). progress in learning to read. Another type
of evidence comes from studies indicating
• It makes it possible to generate that deficient phonological awareness is
possibilities for words in context that one of the most reliable diagnostic signs of
are only partially sounded out. For serious reading disabilities. The final type
example, consider a first-grade child of evidence comes from research that has
who encounters a sentence such as demonstrated the positive effects on read-
“John’s father put John’s bicycle in the ing growth of instruction designed to
car,” and cannot recognize the fifth stimulate phonological awareness.
word. A relatively early level of phono-
logical awareness supports the ability Differences in Phonological
to search one’s mental dictionary for Awareness Predict Subsequent
words that begin with similar sounds. Growth in Reading Ability
Thus, if the child knows the sound
represented by the letter b, he/she can Many studies have examined the extent to
mentally search for words that begin which differences in phonological aware-
with that sound and fit the context. As ness among children in kindergarten and
children acquire more knowledge of beginning first grade can predict who will
phonics and can sound out more letters become good and poor readers after read-
in words, their search for words with ing instruction begins. For example, one
similar phonemes in them can proceed early study showed that several short
much more quickly and accurately. phonological awareness tasks administered
during the second semester of kindergar-
As should be clear from this analysis, ten each predicted first-grade word reading
phonemic awareness has its primary skill as well as or better than the six sub-
impact on reading growth through its effect sections of a standard readiness test or a
on children’s ability to phonetically decode standardized intelligence test (Stanovich,
words in text. Although phonetic decoding Cunningham, & Cramer, l984).
skills should never be considered the end
goal of reading, research now shows that, One of the most complete investigations of
for most children, acquiring these skills the relationship between early differences
during early elementary school is a critical in phonological awareness and subsequent
step along the way toward becoming an reading growth has been conducted at
effective reader. Florida State University (Torgesen, Wagner,
& Rashotte, 1994; Wagner, et al., 1997). In
Research Evidence for the this study, we followed the reading growth
of approximately 200 children from kinder-
Role of Phonological garten through the end of fifth grade. The
Awareness in Reading graph on the next page presents informa-
Growth tion on the growth of word reading ability
in two groups of children who began first
grade with quite different levels of phono-
There are three major kinds of evidence
logical awareness. The numbers at the
that directly demonstrate the important
right of the graphs represent average
role that phonological awareness plays in
grade-level score at the end of fifth grade of
helping children during the early stages of
children who scored above and below the
learning to read. One type of evidence is
20th percentile on phonological awareness
provided by studies showing that the level
4
Figure 1. Growth of sight-word and phonetic decoding skill in children who begin first grade below
the 20th percentile in phonological awareness.
5
Instruction in Phonological activities that accompany instruction in
Awareness Accelerates Reading phonological awareness are necessarily
Growth very simple. For example, children who
have been taught a few letter sounds, and
The final type of evidence about the role of who have achieved a beginning level of
phonological awareness in reading is phonemic awareness, should be able to
probably the most important. This evi- identify the first letter of a word when they
dence indicates that specific training in hear it pronounced. They might also be led
phonological awareness either before to substitute different letters at the begin-
reading instruction begins, or during ning or end of a word like cat to make
reading instruction, consistently acceler- different words. They could also be asked
ates reading growth for children who re- to pronounce the sounds of the letters
ceive it. This research has also shown that c, a, t, and then blend them together to
methods that integrate instruction in form a word.
letter-sound correspondences in a way
that directly links newly acquired phone- The importance of this progression from
mic awareness to reading and spelling oral to written language activities was
produce stronger effects on reading than illustrated in the first major demonstration
those that do not. While most instructional of the effectiveness of training in phonemic
programs in phonemic awareness begin awareness reported by Bradley and Bryant
with oral language activities, most also (1985). In this study, phonemic awareness
conclude by leading children to apply their was stimulated by using activities that
newly developed ability to think about the required children to categorize words on
phonemic segments in words to simple the basis of similarities in their beginning,
reading and spelling activities. middle, and ending sounds (sound com-
parison tasks). However, in one of the
When we recommend that oral instruction conditions, this training was supplemented
in phonological awareness be accompa- by work with individual plastic letters to
nied, or followed by print-based activities illustrate the way new words could be
involving letters, this does not mean that made by changing only one letter (or
instruction in phonological awareness is sound) in a word. It was children in this
useful only if it precedes a systematic and latter condition who showed the largest
complete phonics curriculum. Although benefit from the phonemic awareness
most reading researchers now recommend training program. While training in phone-
that reading curriculums should contain a mic awareness, by itself, can produce
balance of activities including both skills- significant improvement in subsequent
oriented phonics instruction and meaning- reading growth (Lundberg, Frost, &
ful, literature-based activities in reading Peterson, 1988), programs that directly
and writing (Adams, 1990; Beck & Juel, illustrate the relevance of the training to
1995), children in kindergarten need only simple reading and spelling activities
very simple activities to make the connec- consistently produce the largest gains in
tion between phonological awareness and reading (Blachman, Ball, Black, & Tangel,
reading. As will be seen when we review 1994; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1993;
instructional programs, the print-based Cunningham, 1990).
6
Assessment
The primary purpose for the assessment of
phonological awareness is to identify chil-
dren who may require extra instructional
7
sessment of phonological awareness in first words (“Say the sounds in cat one at a
and second grade children may also be time.”), deleting sounds from words (“Say
warranted as a means to monitor the card without saying the /d/ sound.”), or
development of those who continue to counting sounds (“Put one marker on the
experience difficulties in this area. line for each sound you hear in the word
fast.”).
How Is Phonological
Phoneme Blending
Awareness Assessed?
Phoneme blending skill has only been
Since researchers first began to study measured by one kind of task. This is the
phonological awareness in the early 1970s, sound blending task in which the tester
more than 20 different tasks have been pronounces a series of phonemes in isola-
used to measure awareness of phonemes tion and asks the child to blend them
in words. These measures can be grouped together to form a word (e.g., “What word
into three broad categories: sound com- do these sounds make, /f/ - /a/ - /t/?”).
parison, phoneme segmentation, and Easier variants of the sound-blending task
phoneme blending. can be produced by allowing the child to
choose from two or three pictures the word
Sound Comparison that is represented by a series of pho-
nemes.
Sound comparison tasks use a number of
different formats that all require children An important point about these different
to make comparisons between the sounds kinds of tasks is that they all appear to be
in different words. For example, a child measuring essentially the same construct,
might be asked to indicate which word (of or ability. Although some research (Yopp,
several) begins or ends with the same 1988) has indicated that the tasks may
sound as a target word (e.g., “Which word vary in the complexity of their overall
begins with the same first sound as cat— intellectual requirements, and there may
boy, cake, or fan?”). Additionally, tasks be some differences between segmentation
that require children to generate words and blending tasks at certain ages
that have the same first or last sound as a (Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994), for
target word would fall in this category. the most part, they all seem to be measur-
Sound comparison tasks are particularly ing different levels of growth in the same
appropriate for kindergarten-age children, general ability (Hoien, et al., 1995;
as they do not require as fully explicit a Stanovich, Cunningham, & Cramer, 1984).
knowledge of phonemes as tasks that Sound comparison measures are easier
require children to pronounce or manipu- and are sensitive to emergent levels of
late individual phonemes. phonological awareness, while segmenta-
tion and blending measures are sensitive
Phoneme Segmentation to differences among children during later
stages of development involving refine-
Phoneme segmentation tasks require a ments in explicit levels of awareness.
relatively explicit level of awareness of Measures of sensitivity to rhyme (which
phonemes because they involve counting, word rhymes with cat—leg or mat?) are not
pronouncing, deleting, adding, or reversing included among measures of phonemic
the individual phonemes in words. Com- awareness because they appear to be
mon examples of this type of task require measuring something a little different, and
pronouncing the individual phonemes in less predictive of reading disabilities, than
8
those measures that ask children to attend would obtain very low scores so that you
to individual phonemes. For the same could not differentiate among them easily.
reason, measures of syllable awareness are
not included in this group. If the children in your classroom generally
come from backgrounds in which they
How Should You Select a have had rich pre-school experiences with
language and pre-reading activities, then a
Measure to Use in Your measure that has a slightly greater degree
Assessment Program? of difficulty may be most appropriate. In
addition if you are likely to be assessing
Although the most commonly used mea- children beyond kindergarten age, then
sures of phonological awareness appear to you should select a measure that contains
be measuring roughly the same construct, a sufficient number of more difficult items
there are usually small differences in their in order to provide sensitive measurement
predictive relationships with reading of individual differences beyond beginning
growth. In selecting the best measure to levels of phonological awareness.
use in your classroom, at least three fac-
tors are important in addition to cost. Measurement Reliability
• Is its degree of difficulty suitable for the Measurement reliability is simply the
children you will assess? degree to which a test provides consistent
• Does it have adequate measurement assessment of a given construct. If a test
reliability? does not have sufficient reliability, it can-
• What is the evidence for its ability to not be counted on to serve as a useful
predict reading growth? supplement to teacher judgment by provid-
ing objective identification of children with
Degree of Difficulty different levels of phonological awareness.
Test developers calculate reliability in a
A given test may be a good indicator of number of different ways, but it is always
relative strengths and weaknesses in expressed as a number between 0 and 1.
phonological awareness among the chil- Generally, tests with reliabilities above .85
dren in your classroom and still not be an will be suitable for assessments to track
appropriate measure for your purposes. the development of phonological awareness
For example, if you are able to provide in individual children, and all of the mea-
extra instruction only to the children who sures to be discussed in this manual meet
fall in the bottom 20 percent of your class, this criterion. A test’s reliability should
then you should use a test that is particu- always be reported somewhere in the test
larly sensitive to differences among chil- manual.
dren in the lower half of the class. This
would probably be a relatively easy mea- Predictive Validity
sure that does not discriminate well among
the strongest children in your class, but Since the ultimate purpose for assessment
which is very sensitive to differences of phonological awareness is to identify
among your weakest students. In contrast, children who are likely to experience read-
if you used a more difficult measure, it ing difficulties, it is important that the
might tell you who had the very strongest measure you select present evidence that it
phonological skills in your class, but most is strongly related to reading growth. Pre-
of the children in the lower half of the class dictive relationships between measures of
phonological awareness and reading are
9
usually expressed as correlation coeffi- Information about
cients.
Measures of Phonological
A correlation coefficient is simply a num- Awareness
ber, derived from statistical calculations,
that expresses the extent to which two In order to make it easier for you to com-
variables are related to one another. For pare measures of phonological awareness,
variables that are positively related to one all the descriptions in this section will be
another (when one is higher, the other also presented in a similar format. The format
tends to be higher), such as phonological will include the following information:
awareness and reading, correlation coeffi-
cients can range between 0 and 1, with • A description of the test including
predictive correlations for most measures sample items
of phonological awareness ranging between • Ages for which the test is applicable
.6 and .8. and issues in administration such as
the training required, whether it can be
For practical purposes of identifying chil- administered in groups, etc.
dren who may be in need of extra support • Sample items
in the development of phonological aware- • Information on test reliability and
ness, small differences in the predictive validity
strength of various measures are of little • Types of scores that are available
importance. However, other things being • Cost and ordering information (costs
equal (such as cost, time and ease of are approximate and subject to change)
administration), relative differences in • General comments about appropriate-
predictive strength should be considered in ness for various purposes
selecting a measure of phonological aware-
ness to use in the classroom or clinic. To our knowledge, six different instru-
ments are presently available for teachers
Teachers and psychologists should also be and other professionals to use in assessing
alert to the fact that correlations between phonological awareness. Some of these
tests given concurrently are usually higher instruments have been subject to formal
than correlations between tests given standardization procedures so that a given
predictively. Thus, when manuals report child can be compared to a random sample
the relationship between a given measure of other children of the same age or grade.
of phonological awareness and reading These instruments, for example, can indi-
ability, it is important to determine the cate what percentage of all children in the
length of time that elapsed between the standardization sample (usually 100 to
administration of the measure of phono- 200 children of the same age) obtained
logical awareness and the administration scores lower than the child who is being
of the measure of reading skill. Ideally, assessed. This kind of information is use-
manuals should report the strength of ful in order to estimate how extreme a
relationship between measures of phono- given child’s performance is compared to a
logical awareness administered in kinder- large group of other children.
garten and measures of reading adminis-
tered in first or second grade.
10
Being able to compare children’s perfor- A number of tests described in this section
mance against that of a broadly based do not have normative information to
normative sample can also help to indicate accompany them. Nevertheless, these tests
what proportion of children in a class or can be useful as informal assessment
school may be in need of special help to instruments for teachers to use in moni-
support their growth in phonological toring the progress of children in their
awareness. The proportion of children who classrooms. If these instruments are used
come to school delayed in the development regularly, teachers will quickly become
of phonological awareness will depend acquainted with their value in selecting the
somewhat on specific aspects of their pre- children who are most at-risk for reading
school language and literacy environment. difficulties in their classroom. If classroom
Tests with national norms can help to resources allow extra help for a fixed num-
pinpoint classes or schools in which a ber of children (say, 20 to 30 percent), then
special effort must be made to enhance these measures can be used immediately
phonological awareness in children prior to identify the group of children within a
to, or during, reading instruction. For classroom whose awareness of the phono-
example, a classroom in which 75 percent logical structure of words is least devel-
of the children performed below the 20th oped. Finally, these measures can be very
percentile (in the bottom 20 percent of all useful in understanding which children are
children), will require more instructional responding well to a given level or method
resources to prepare children for learning of intervention, and which are not.
to read than a classroom in which only 10
percent of the children scored that low.
11
Appropriate Ages and Issues in
Test of Administration
Phonological The TOPA is appropriate for administration
Awareness to children in kindergarten through second
grade. It is designed to be administered by
(Torgesen & Bryant, 1994) teachers or paraprofessionals, but those
administering the test must be able to
Grades K–2 speak clearly and pronounce individual
phonemes correctly.
The Test of Phonological Awareness (TOPA) There are two versions of the test, one for
contains two subtests that both involve children in kindergarten (Kindergarten
sound comparison activities. It was de- Version), and one for children in first and
signed to provide a simple and efficient way second grade (Early Elementary Version).
to identify young children who were lagging Both versions come in the same test kit.
behind in their development of phonological The TOPA can be given either in groups or
awareness. It was developed with support individually and takes from 15 to 20 min-
of a grant from the National Institute of utes to administer. The entire testing can
Child Health and Human Development and be done in one session or spread across
is nationally normed. Items were developed two sessions, depending upon the time
to be most sensitive to individual differences available for testing and children’s
in phonogical awareness at lower levels of attentional capacities.
ability.
Sample Items
13
Test of Phonological Awareness
14
Appropriate Ages and Issues in
The Phonological Administration
Awareness Test The PAT can be given to children five years
(Robertson & Salter, 1995) of age and older. Although norms extend
only through age nine, the authors believe
Ages 5 years + information useful for planning instruction
may be obtained for children older than
ten. The test should be given by someone
The Phonological Awareness Test (PAT) who is professionally trained in analyzing
contains five measures of phonological the phonological structure of speech, such
awareness, plus measures of word and as a language pathologist, learning disabil-
syllable segmentation and a measure of ity teacher, reading specialist, or special
sensitivity to rhyme. It also contains three education consultant. The test must be
additional subtests that measure knowl- given individually, and it takes about 40
edge of letter-sound correspondences, minutes to administer when all subtests
phonemic decoding (ability to read phoneti- are given. Administration time can be cut
cally regular nonwords), and invented substantially by administering only a few
spelling. It is really a comprehensive test of of the subtests, although this will reduce
phonological sensitivity and phonemic somewhat the reliability of the testing.
reading ability. All tests were normed on a
national sample of children ranging from Sample Items
five to ten years of age.
Although the PAT contains measures of
sensitivity to rhyme, as well as ability to
segment words and syllables, these
subtests will not be discussed here be-
cause, as was discussed in an earlier
portion of this manual, they appear to
provide measures of slightly different
constructs than measures that assess
awareness at the level of phonemes. The
five measures of phonemic awareness on
the PAT include the following:
Segmentation of Phonemes
15
The Phonological Awareness Test
Isolation Blending
Sample item: “I’m going to say a word, and Sample item: “I’ll say the sounds of a word.
I want you to tell me the beginning or first You guess what the word is. What word is
sound in the word. What’s the beginning this?” Then the phonemes /p/ - /o/ - /p/
sound in the word cat?” /k/ are pronounced at one per second. The
child must pronounce the word correctly in
There are 10 items each that ask the child order to receive credit.
to pronounce either the first, last, or
middle sound of short words. There are ten items.
Deletion Reliability
Sample item: “I’m going to ask you to say a Estimates of both test-retest and internal
word and then to say it again without one consistency reliability are provided in the
of its sounds. Say cat.” (Student says cat.) manual. The values reported here are
“Now say it again, but don’t say /k/.” (at) those that apply to the section of each
subtest that measures awareness at the
There are 10 items. phonemic level. In the manual, reliabilities
are reported at half-year age intervals
Substitution between 5 and 10 years of age. Here, we
report the average values across all ages.
Sample item: The first part of this subtest
requires the use of colored blocks to show
the different sounds in words. The exam- Subtest Test/Retest Internal
iner says, “I’m going to show you how to Consistency
make the word fun with these blocks. Each
block is one sound of the word.” The exam- Segmentation .71 .81
iner illustrates the relationship between Isolation .72 .89
blocks and sounds by teaching each block Deletion .71 .73
while saying /f/ - /u/ - /n/. The examiner Substitution .77 .82
then says, “Now, watch how I change fun Blending .76 .74
to run.” This change is illustrated by re-
placing the first block with a different Measurement reliability would undoubt-
colored block. “Now it says run.” There are edly be improved if more than a single
ten test items that require children to show subtest were used to estimate the level of
which sounds have changed on examples phonological awareness at any given age.
like map to mop, or tip to tick. However, because of the way the reliabili-
ties are reported in the manual, it is not
There are also 10 test items that do not possible to estimate the overall measure-
involve blocks. On this type of item, the ment reliability of combinations of subtests
examiner asks the child to change a given assessing phonemic awareness.
sound, /p/, in a word like paint, to another
sound, /f/, to produce another word
(faint). Another example would be, “Say
cow, now change /k/ to /h/.” (how).
16
Validity General
Values for the predictive validity of the PAT The PAT is a well-constructed, comprehen-
are not reported in the manual. Concur- sive measure of phonological awareness
rent validity was established by contrasting and phonemic reading skills. Although the
the performance of groups of randomly letter knowledge and reading tests were
selected children from the normative not discussed in this manual, they may
sample with samples of children who were provide a very useful addition for profes-
identified as at-risk for reading problems sionals who wish to assess both phonemic
or as having reading problems. The total awareness and print knowledge at the
score on the PAT successfully discrimi- same time. Both the predictive validity of
nated between these two groups at five age the overall test and the specific utility of
levels between five and ten. The five indi- the word, syllable, and rhyme level tests
vidual measures of phonemic awareness will need to be demonstrated in further
also successfully discriminated between research with the instrument. However,
these groups in 23 of 25 comparisons. The there can be little doubt that a combina-
only nonsignificant differences were for the tion of measures at the phonemic level
segmentation and isolation subtests at the from this instrument will provide a very
oldest age levels. useful assessment of individual differences
in children’s level of phonemic awareness.
Scores
17
Appropriate Ages and Issues in
Lindamood Administration
Auditory The LAC can be given to children as young
Conceptualization as kindergarten age and can also be ad-
ministered to adults. A more difficult
Test version of the LAC is currently being devel-
oped which will provide finer discrimina-
(Lindamood & Lindamood, 1979) tions of individual differences in phonologi-
cal awareness in older children and adults.
Kindergarten–Adult The test can be given by anyone who has
been trained in its use. However, some
The Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization parts of its administration are complex and
Test (LAC) has been used widely in clinical require careful feedback to the person
work with children with reading disabilities being tested, so sufficient time must be
for many years. The test provides “recom- budgeted to learn proper administration
mended minimum scores” for grades kinder- procedures. The test must be given indi-
garten through sixth grade, with a separate vidually and, depending on the age of the
estimate for the range of seventh grade to child, takes between 15 and 25 minutes to
adult. These estimates are based on the administer.
author’s extensive clinical experience with
the test, and they suggest that children who Sample Items
score below these levels will likely have
difficulties acquiring phonetic decoding The LAC has two levels, Category I and
skills. The test requires children to indicate Category II. Category I items are included
the number, identity, and order of phonemes primarily to determine whether the child
in words using colored blocks. can understand how to represent the
number, order, and identity of sounds with
colored blocks, and Category II actually
assesses phonemic awareness.
19
Lindamood Auditory Conceptualization Test
20
Yopp-Singer Test Appropriate Ages and Issues in
Administration
of Phoneme This test was designed for kindergarten
Segmentation children, but should also be appropriate
for identifying children who are weak in
(Yopp, 1995) phonological awareness during first grade.
It can be administered by teachers or
Kindergarten–Grade 1 paraprofessionals, and must be given
individually. It takes 5 to 10 minutes per
The Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmenta- child. It does not have norms.
tion is a brief test of children’s ability to
isolate and pronounce the individual pho- Sample Items
nemes in words. Phoneme segmentation is
a task that has been widely used in re- The test consists of 22 items that are all of
search on phoneme awareness over the last the same type. Beginning the test, the
20 years, and it is highly correlated with child receives the following instructions:
other measures of phoneme awareness Today we’re going to play a word game. I’m
(Yopp, 1988). The test is very easy to give, going to say a word, and I want you to
score, and interpret. break the word apart. You are going to tell
me each sound in the word in order. For
example, if I say old, you should say “/o/-/
l/-/d/.” (The administrator says the
sounds, not the letters.) Let’s try a few
words together.”
Reliability
Validity
Cost
The Yopp-Singer test has impressive valid-
Free by copying from the journal article ity data derived from a seven-year longitu-
listed below or from page 23 of this manual dinal study in which the same children
that were administered the phoneme seg-
Ordering mentation test in kindergarten were fol-
lowed through sixth grade. (See Table 1 on
Copy from: the following page.) The segmentation test
was administered in the second semester
Yopp, H. K. (1995). A test for assessing of kindergarten, and the table below gives
phonemic awareness in young children, the correlations between the test and
The Reading Teacher, 49, 20-29. various reading measures. All of the read-
21
Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
22
Yopp-Singer Test of Phoneme Segmentation
Directions: Today we’re going to play a word game. I’m going to say a word, and I want you to
break the word apart. You are going to tell me each sound in the word in order. For example,
if I say old, you should say /o/-/l/-/d/.” (Administrator: Be sure to say the sounds, not the
letters, in the word.) “Let’s try a few words together.”
Test items: (Circle those items that the student correctly segments; incorrect responses may
be recorded on the blank line following the item.)
Note. From “A Test for Assessing Phonemic Awareness in Young Children,” by H. K. Yopp,
1995, The Reading Teacher, 49, 20-29. Reprinted with permission.
23
Appropriate Ages and Issues in
Rosner Test of Administration
Auditory Analysis The test can be given to children from
(Rosner, 1975) kindergarten through late elementary
school but will be most sensitive to indi-
Kindergarten–Elementary vidual differences in phonemic awareness
among children in kindergarten, first, and
The Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis is the second grades. It can be administered by
oldest published test of phonemic aware- teachers or paraprofessionals and takes
ness, and it has been widely used in re- about 5 to 10 minutes to complete. The
search. It is a relatively brief test (13 items) only difficult part in administration is
involving the deletion of phonemes from learning to pronounce individual pho-
words, and it is very easy to give, score, nemes properly.
and interpret.
Sample Items
Reliability
Rosner, J. (1975). Helping children over- Again, Rosner does not present formal
come learning disabilities. New York: information about the predictive validity of
Walker & Company. this test, but numerous studies have found
25
Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis
26
Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis
(Rosner, 1975)
Materials Needed
Directions
Practice: “ Lets play a word game. Say cowboy. (Allow child to respond.) Now say it
again, but don’t say boy.”
If incorrect: “That’s not quite right. Cowboy without saying boy is cow.” (Then see if
you can explain it to the child. If the child requires more than a simple explanation, stop
testing.)
Second Practice Item: “Say steamboat. (Wait for response.) Now say it again, but don’t say
steam.”
If the child answers both demonstration items correctly, start the test with item 1. If he/she
does not answer both demonstration items correctly, do not administer any more items.
Administration Notes
1. Do not give hints with your lips. Speak distinctly, but do not stress any particular
sounds. In other words, do not give any additional information that might make the task
easier. You want the child to do well but not at the expense of looking better on the test
than is really the case.
2. Remember, when you get to the items that ask the child to “Say the word, but don’t say
/…./ (a single sound)” you are to say the sound of the letter, not the letter name.
3. Stop testing after two successive errors—two incorrect responses in a row—and record
the number of the last correct item before those two errors. This is the score. For ex-
ample, if the child is correct on items 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and incorrect on items 6 and 7,
his/her score would be 5. If he/she was correct on 1, 2, 3, incorrect on 4, correct on 5
and 6, then incorrect on 7 and 8, his/her score would be 6.
The following expected scores were not based on a formal norming procedure, but rather on
the author’s experience in administering the task to children of various ages. Although they
can be used as an initial guide to expected performance at various age levels, the test will be
most accurately used to identify children with delays in phonological awareness if this infor-
mation is supplemented with local norms.
27
Rosner Test of Auditory Analysis
Test Items
Answer Corr/incorr
1. Say SUNSHINE. Now say it again, but don’t say SHINE. SUN __________
2 Say PICNIC. Now say it again, but don’t say PIC. NIC __________
3. Say CUCUMBER. Now say it again, but don’t say CU (q) CUMBER __________
4. Say COAT. Now say it again, but don’t say /k/. OAT __________
5. Say MEAT. Now say it again, but don’t say /m/. EAT __________
6. Say TAKE. Now say it again, but don’t say /t/ ACHE __________
7. Say GAME. Now say it again, but don’t say /m/. GAY __________
8. Say WROTE. Now say it again, but don’t say /t/. ROW __________
9. Say PLEASE. Now say it again, but don’t say /z/ PLEA __________
10. Say CLAP. Now say it again, but don’t say /k/ LAP __________
11. Say PLAY. Now say it again, but don’t say /p/ LAY __________
12. Say STALE. Now say it again, but don’t say /t/ SALE __________
13. Say SMACK. Now say it again, but don’t say /m/ SACK __________
Note. From Helping Children Overcome Learning Difficulties (p. 47), by J. Rosner, l975, New
York: Walker and Company. Reprinted with permission.
28
Appropriate Ages and Issues in
Test of Invented Administration
Spelling The test is designed for children during the
(Mann, Tobin, & Wilson, 1987) second semester of kindergarten or as soon
as they have acquired some rudimentary
knowledge of letter-sound correspon-
Kindergarten dences. This kind of test may not be appro-
priate once children begin formal instruc-
The Test of Invented Spelling actually mea- tion in spelling, as many of the words
sures more than simple phonemic aware- would simply be spelled correctly because
ness. Since it requires children to “represent they had been memorized. The test can be
as many of the sounds in words as they administered by teachers or paraprofes-
can” by spelling them, it also assesses sionals to groups of children in less than
knowledge of sound-letter correspondences. 10 minutes. The scoring of the test is
It is included here because it is very sensi- relatively complicated and requires a good
tive to individual differences in phonemic understanding of phonetic relationships in
awareness and may actually be more spelling.
predictive of later reading growth than
many purely oral measures of phonemic Sample Items
awareness (Mann, 1993).
Directions can be adapted to the circum-
stances of test administration, but would
go something like this: “I want you to try to
write some words for me. I will say a word,
and you should write it as best you can. If
you cannot write the whole word, write any
of the sounds that you hear, and any of the
letters that you think might belong in that
word.” The first word on the test is red,
Cost followed by name, bed, and lady. There are
14 words on the test.
Free by copying from the article listed
below and on page 31 of this manual. (To Reliability
obtain a complete understanding of the
test and its appropriate uses, we recom- Mann does not report reliability figures for
mend reading the original article that this test, but the strength of its relation-
reports its development.) ships to later reading development suggest
that is probably at least as reliable as most
Ordering of the phonological awareness measures
used with kindergarten children.
Copy from:
Validity
Mann, V.A., Tobin, P., & Wilson, R. (1987).
Measuring phonological awareness The predictive validity of the Test of In-
through the invented spellings of kinder- vented Spelling was assessed in a study in
garten children. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, which the spelling test was given in the
33, 365-89. second semester of kindergarten, and
reading was assessed one year later. The
29
Test of Invented Spelling
30
Test of Invented Spelling
(Mann, Tobin, & Wilson, 1987)
Materials Needed
List of words to be spelled and a numbered response form containing 14 triple spaced lines
Directions
This test can be administered to small groups of students. The teacher could introduce the
test by saying, “I want you to try to write some words for me. I will say a word and you
should write it as best you can. If you cannot write the whole word, write any of the sounds
that you hear, and any of the letters that you think might belong in that word.”
“Ready? OK, here is the first word.” (Read each word aloud twice and wait as the children
respond.)
Word List
10. angry 11. thank you 12. people 13. dog 14. boy
Each response is assigned a score between 0 and 4. No points are awarded if no letters are
given or if the letters fail to capture any phonological element of the target word. One point is
given for a response in which the first letter (or only letter) represents the first phoneme in
the word. One half point is given for a single letter corresponding to any phoneme except the
first. Two points are given if the response represents at least two phonemes. Three points are
given if all phonemes are represented, but the word is not spelled correctly. Some leniency is
allowed in using the correct letters for specific sounds, since the goal is to evaluate the
child’s awareness of the sounds in the word. Four points are awarded when the response is
correct by conventional spelling standards. The maximum possible score is 56.
Scoring examples: red: r (1), rd (2), d (1/2); name: nam (3); fish: fis (3); angry: agre (2), angre
(3); people: ppl (2), peepl (3); thank you: thak u (2), tank u (3)
Expected Scores
The test was given to a group of predominantly white, middle class children in May of the
kindergarten year, and the average phonological score was 21. About 68 percent of the chil-
dren obtained scores between 9 and 33. Mann suggests that scores below five at the end of
kindergarten indicate a pronounced risk for reading problems in first grade. However, this
must be verified with a larger, more diverse sample.
Note. Reprinted from “Measuring Phonological Awareness through the Invented Spellings of
Kindergarten Children,” by V. A. Mann, P. Tobin, & R. Wilson, 1987, Merrill-Palmer Quarterly,
33, 365-89. Reprinted with permission.
31
In this section, we will describe 13 instruc-
Instruction in tional programs that focus on building
phonological awareness in young children.
Goals of
Instruction in
Phonological
Awareness
Instruction in phonological awareness has
two primary goals. The first objective is to
help children notice the phonemes in
words, to discover their existence and
distinctness. The second goal is to help
children make the “connection” between
the phonemes in words and the letters of
the alphabet. Good instruction in phono-
logical awareness should help children all
the way to the discovery of the alphabetic
principle. Thus, although all phonological
awareness training programs begin with
oral language activities designed to help
children attend to the individual sounds in
words, they all should end, or overlap, with
very simple “phonics” activities designed to
show children how the sounds in words
are represented by letters.
Section 3
33
When children learn to speak their native to remember is that the effectiveness of all
language, most of their focus is on acquir- instruction in phonological awareness will
ing the meaning of words. They are occa- be improved if the connection between the
sionally corrected in their pronunciations, phonemes in oral language and the letters
but the primary object of language learning in print is made very explicitly and directly.
is to understand the meaning of words in
conversation. Because of the human ca-
pacity for language, the brain processes General Issues In
the phonemes in spoken words automati-
cally, and the child does not have to be Teaching
consciously aware of them as individual
sounds in order to understand speech. Phonological
However, if a child is to understand the
way words are represented by print, he/ Awareness
she must become aware that words are
made up of the individual sounds called In this section, we are simply going to list
phonemes. Thus, the first goal of instruc- some of the most important general points
tion in phonological awareness is to pro- about instruction in phonological aware-
vide activities that help to focus children’s ness. Many of the instructional programs
attention on the individual sounds in we will describe later contain similar dis-
words. Good instruction in phonological cussions, but we thought it would be
awareness will help children learn to notice useful to extract the most general issues
the identity, number, and order of sounds that apply to all programs and present
in words. them here.
34
Instructional programs can follow a variety experience with rhyming and letter activi-
of paths after these initial, introductory ties, children will show very different rates
activities, but it may be easiest for children of progress in the growth of their phono-
to move next to activities that involve logical awareness. Not only should class-
comparing words on the basis of first, last, room instructional activities be planned to
and middle sounds. These sound compari- accommodate wide differences in phono-
son kinds of tasks do not require as fully logical ability among children, but provi-
explicit an awareness of sounds as is sion should be made to identify children
required by tasks that involve segmenting who will require more intense or more
and pronouncing individual phonemes. explicit instruction. By the beginning of the
Once children have some beginning profi- second semester of kindergarten, it should
ciency with sound comparison tasks, they be very clear to teachers which children
can be moved to training activities that will require more intensive instruction, and
involve segmenting beginning sounds and these children should be taught in small
blending of onset-rhyme patterns (e.g., groups or individually.
c-at, d-og). The final series of tasks should
be those that involve completely segment- Instruction in phonological awareness
ing the sounds in simple words, or blend- should involve both analytic and syn-
ing all the sounds, or manipulating the thetic activities.
sounds in words (e.g., “what word do we
have if we say cat, but don’t say the /k/ Analytic activities are those that require
sound?”). children to identify individual sounds
within whole words (e.g., “Tell me some
Instruction in phonological awareness words that begin with the same sound as
should be a regular part of the curricu- dog.” “What is the first sound in man?” Or,
lum. “If you say man without saying the /m/
sound, what word do you get?”). In con-
In the case of whole class instruction, trast, synthetic activities involve blending
activities to build phonological awareness together separately presented phonemes
should take place for 15-20 minutes every (“What word do these sounds make, /f/-/
day throughout the entire kindergarten a/-/t/?”). Both of these kinds of skills with
year. The daily focus on these activities will phonemes are important in learning to
produce much more consistent growth read and spell.
than sporadic involvement or casual in-
struction that occurs at irregular intervals. Since the first goal of instruction in
For children who require more intensive phonological awareness is to help chil-
instruction, small group or individual dren notice the individual sounds in
tutoring should be provided on a daily words, teachers should speak slowly and
basis. One intensive program, for example, carefully and pronounce individual
involves small group instruction delivered sounds correctly.
every day in half-hour sessions for about
12 weeks. This is not as easy as it sounds. Often, the
ability of teachers who have become good
Teachers should expect that children readers and spellers to “hear” individual
will respond at widely varying rates to sounds in words is distorted by their
instruction in phonological awareness. knowledge of a word’s spelling. For ex-
ample, they may feel that they hear four
Depending upon their talent for processing sounds in the word church because of the
phonological information or previous extra consonant after the vowel, but in
35
fact, the letters u and r are blended into a
single sound in this word. It would be a Pronunciation
mistake to expect children to blend to-
gether the sounds /ch/-/u/-/r/-/ch to Suggestions for
obtain the word church. Similarly, teachers
may think there are four sounds in the Individual
word pitch because of the presence of the
letter t, while, in fact, the word pitch Phonemes
rhymes with rich.
36
Pronunciation Notes properly, it is obvious from listening to
them that one begins with wh and the
• Some of these phonemes, such as /t/, other a w.) However, in order to avoid
/p/, /k/, /ch/ are hard because we confusion when letter sounds and
need to learn to pronounce them spelling are introduced, it may be best
strongly as “whispers.” The vocal cords to avoid words with the /wh/ phoneme
are not vibrating while we pronounce during instruction in phonological
these sounds, so we should not say, for awareness.
example, tuh, or puh, or kuh with a
vowel sound following the phoneme. Hardest to Pronounce
• Teachers also have a tendency to pro- /d/ (dog)
nounce /l/ as luh, but this will make it /b/ (big)
hard for children to blend the sound /g/ (gone)
with other phonemes during sound- /r/ (run)
blending activities. You do not need to /j/ (jump)
follow the /l/ sound with a vowel—just
bring your tongue to the top of your
Pronunciation Notes
mouth (behind the front teeth) and
leave it there as you say the sound). • The primary difficulty with the pho-
nemes /d/, /b/, /g/, and /j/ is that we
• The /ng/ sound is just hard to get used need to vocalize (make our vocal chords
to saying by itself. The best way to vibrate) while we say them, and we
practice saying it is to say a word like often have a tendency to lengthen out
ring, and then notice what your mouth the resulting vowel sound too much.
is doing at the end of the word. When Thus, we say duuuh for /d/, and buuh
you say the sound /ng/, put your for /b/. The art of good pronunciation
mouth in the same position, and use with these phonemes is to make that
your vocal chords. vowel sound as short as possible.
• The sound /h/ is difficult just because • The phoneme /r/ is probably the hard-
you need to get enough energy in your est one to pronounce in isolation.
“whisper” (do not follow it with a vowel Typically, teachers pronounce it in one
by saying huh) in order to be heard. of two ways. It can be pronounced with
You should be blowing a lot of air out a vowel sound at the beginning, as in
when you say /h/, but should not be errrr, or the vowel sound can follow, as
using your vocal chords. in ruh. The pronunciation that is usu-
ally most helpful is similar to ruh, as
• Finally, the sounds /w/ and /wh/ are long as the vowel part is very short. For
often confused with one another, par- example, if you are asking a child to
ticularly in Southern dialects. Thus we blend the sounds in run, it would be a
often pronounce words like what and mistake to say /err/-/u/-/n/, because
win as though they begin with the same then the child would be led to say
first sound. In reality, the sound /wh/ errun. Words in which the vowel sound
should be pronounced with no vocaliza- come before the /r/ are most usually
tion (with just air coming out), while the words like hurt, dart, her, or corn, that
/w/ sound is vocalized from the begin- contain what is called an r-controlled
ning. In reality, this distinction is im- vowel. When blending these words, the
portant primarily for spelling (if the teacher would say, for example,
words where and were are pronounced /k/- /or/- /n/ for corn.
37
Short Vowels Materials Teachers
/a/
/e/
apple
eskimo
Can Use to Help
/i/
/o/
indian
octopus
Children Acquire
/u/ umbrella Phonological
Pronunciation Notes Awareness
• The major difficulty presented by vowel
In the remainder of this manual, we will
sounds is that their pronunciation
describe several different kinds of curricu-
varies a lot with dialect. They are pro-
lum materials that teachers can use to
nounced somewhat differently in vari-
stimulate phonological awareness in indi-
ous regions of the country, and there
viduals ranging in age from kindergarten to
may be a mismatch between the way
adulthood. Most of the materials are de-
the teacher pronounces them and the
signed for very young children, since this is
way children in the class pronounce
the most appropriate time to offer this type
them. As long as the teacher allows
of instruction. However, for individuals
reasonable latitude, this does not
who continue to struggle in this area,
present as much of a problem in pho-
perhaps because of a severe deficiency of
nological awareness training as it does
“phonological talent,” there are intensive
when children begin to learn the
programs designed to help them acquire
sounds associated with various letters.
phonological awareness. The programs we
will discuss fall roughly into two catego-
• At some point, it may be helpful to
ries: those designed for regular classroom
teach children that pronunciation for
instruction in either whole class or small
words “in books” may be different from
group settings, and those designed for
the way they hear them pronounced in
more intensive and explicit instruction for
their home and neighborhood. It is
children who do not learn enough from
important to learn about “book” sounds
programs offered in the regular classroom.
because this will be very helpful in
At the conclusion of this section, we will
spelling. Children who come to school
briefly review 53 different pieces of com-
speaking a very different dialect than
puter software offered for pre-reading
the one in which instruction is offered
instruction in the home and school. Our
frequently experience difficulties learn-
goal here is to assess the value of this
ing to read. One of the reasons for this
software in stimulating phonological
is that they have difficulty relating the
awareness and increasing children’s readi-
sounds in their oral language to the
ness to learn to read.
way words are represented in print.
Since it is critical for all children to
acquire phonemic reading skills early in
development, teachers must work
especially hard with these children in
order to insure that they make the
connection between the sounds in
words and spellings in print.
38
Phonological awareness materials designed Programs designed for small group or
for regular classroom instruction include individualized phonological awareness
the following: training for children who have difficulty
learning with regular classroom programs
• Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: include the following:
A Classroom Curriculum
• Sound Start: Teaching Phonological • Launch into Reading Success through
Awareness in the Classroom Phonological Awareness Training
• Sounds Abound Instructional Materials • Phonological Awareness Training for
and Game Reading
• The Phonological Awareness Kit • Auditory Discrimination in Depth
• The Phonological Awareness Companion
• Peer Assisted Learning Strategies for
Beginning Readers
• Daisy Quest and Daisy’s Castle (com-
puter program)
• Waterford Early Reading Program (com-
puter program)
• Read, Write, and Type (computer pro-
gram)
• Earobics (computer program)
39
Materials Included with Purchase
Phonemic Awareness
This program is contained in a single
in Young Children: teacher’s manual. The manual describes
all 51 activities and how to sequence them
A Classroom in instruction. It also contains many lists
of words that can be used in the activities.
Curriculum Some of the activities require that the
(Marilyn Jager Adams, Barbara R. teacher supply materials such as pictures,
Foorman, Ingvar Lundberg, Terry Beeler, a ball of yarn, or colored paper. None of the
1997) materials would be difficult for a typical
kindergarten teacher to develop. The
Kindergarten–Grade 1 manual also includes a number of group-
administered phonological awareness tests
that can be used to monitor children’s
This is a complete, organized curriculum in
progress. Finally, an extensive selection of
phonological awareness that is appropriate
support materials is also listed that in-
for kindergarten classrooms as well as first
cludes a list of rhyming and alliteration
graders who are lagging behind their peers
books that can be used by parents and
in the development of phonological aware-
teachers to get children thinking about the
ness. It was translated from a program
sounds in words.
developed by Ingvar Lundberg and used in
one of the early and most successful stud-
ies of phonological awareness training in
Range of Instructional Activities
the research literature. It is essentially a
carefully sequenced series of game-like This program contains a series of activities
activities that can be used with large or that are graded in difficulty, along with a
small groups to build phonological aware- recommended sequence for introducing the
ness in young children. In a typical kinder- activities. The goal of all the activities is for
garten classroom, the program contains the children to have fun while learning to
enough activities to occupy 15-20 minutes a listen for the sounds in words. Following is
day for eight months of the school year. It the recommended sequence of activities in
contains an excellent discussion of the the program.
concept of phonological awareness and its
relation to reading growth and offers many Listening games—These introductory
helpful suggestions for teaching techniques activities are designed to sharpen
in this area. children’s ability to listen selectively to
sounds in their environment.
41
Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum
42
Materials Included with Purchase
Sound Start:
Sound Start includes a spiral-bound
Teaching teacher’s manual that provides a good
overview of the concept of phonological
Phonological awareness and directions for 21 different
instructional activities. In addition, it
Awareness in the contains a selection of pictures and game
boards printed on 8 1/2 by 11 inch card
Classroom stock. The kit also comes with an excellent
(Orna Lenchner & Blanche Podhajski, 1997) videotape that demonstrates many of the
activities in the program.
Preschool–Grade 1
Range of Instructional Activities
Sound Start contains activities to stimulate
phonological awareness that are appropri- The curriculum of Sound Start provides
ate for pre-school through first grade chil- instructional practice in developing rhyme,
dren. It was developed out of experience at syllable, and phonemic awareness. Follow-
the Stern Center for Language and Learning ing most of the activities, the authors offer
in Williston, Vermont, and grew out of the special instructional tips, as well as activi-
efforts of Dr. Orna Lenchner and others to ties to provide extra instruction and prac-
help classroom teachers build phonological tice for children who are having difficulty
awareness in their students. It is designed mastering the skill being taught. The
to serve as a regular class curriculum in majority of activities in this program in-
phonological awareness primarily for the volve singing or other musical activity.
kindergarten year, and contains activities to Following is a list of the specific skills
teach rhyme, syllable, and phoneme aware- taught in the program.
ness. There are two activities at the end of
the program that help children practice Rhyme
using letters to represent the first sound in
words. • Recognition (“Does log rhyme with
dog?”)
• Completion (Child completes a rhyme
within a sentence, like “Jack and Jill
went up the _____?”)
• Production—children make up rhymes
for individual words (“What words
rhyme with blue?”)
Cost
Syllable Awareness
$95 for the manual, instructional materi-
als, and video • Segmentation—These activities teach
children to count the syllables in words
Ordering and pronounce the syllables separately.
• Deletion—This uses compound words
Stern Center for Language to give children practice in making new
20 Allen Brook Lane words by dropping one of the parts of
Williston, VT 05495 the compound word (e.g., starfish: star,
800-544-4863 fish).
43
Sound Start: Teaching Phonological Awareness in the Classroom
• Initial sound recognition—These activi- This program has not been evaluated in
ties require childen to select a picture research. However, almost all of the activi-
beginning with a given sound or to ties are very similar to those of other pro-
pronounce the beginning sound of a grams that have been evaluated and have
word. produced significant growth in phonologi-
• Phoneme segmentation—Children cal awareness. The primary question about
pronounce all the sounds in words— the effectiveness of this program is
they are supported with pictures that whether it contains enough different activi-
have dots at the bottom showing the ties to support instruction across an entire
number of sounds in the words. classroom year and, thus, whether it will
.• Phoneme deletion—Children recognize be as effective as those programs that
the sound left out when the teacher include a greater variety of content and
says their name after deleting the first activities.
sound (e.g., Mark: ark, the /m/ sound
was left out). General
• Phoneme substitution—Children prac-
tice making funny words by putting One strength of this program is the demon-
different sounds at the beginning of stration video that is included with the
words. materials. It provides delightful examples
• Phoneme blending—Children practice of many of the activities being performed
recognizing pictures or body parts when by the author with a small group of chil-
their names are pronounced one pho- dren. This video should be very useful for
neme at a time (e.g., /n/-/o/-/z/, inservice training of teachers and for show-
/f/-/oo/-/t/). ing to parents as part of parent programs.
One possible limitation of the program is
Activities with Letters the relatively limited number (21) of differ-
ent activities it contains. However, the
Matching letters to first sounds in words— manual does provide suggestions for addi-
Two activities are included that provide tional activities so teachers should be able
practice in identifying the letter that to generate more practice if the children in
stands for the first sound in a word. The their classes seem to require it. Finally, the
children are either given the word and program contains only two very simple
must identify its first letter or are given the activities designed to help children see the
letter and must identify a picture that goes connections between sounds and letters.
with it. The program will need to be supplemented
with other activities at the end to ensure
that children learn to apply their newly
acquired phonemic awareness to spelling
and reading print.
44
Materials Included with Purchase
Sounds Abound
(Hugh Catts and Tina Vartiainen, 1993) The Sounds Abound program is contained
in a spiral-bound notebook. The notebook
Kindergarten—Grade 1 contains both directions for the activities
and many pictures used with the activities.
This popular program has been in use in In addition, it contains a list of picture
kindergarten and first grade classrooms for books that emphasize rhyme, song books,
a number of years. The spiral-bound book and fingerplay and rhyme books that can
contains both activities and materials to be used to build sound awareness in
lead children from beginning rhyming activi- young children. The manual also contains
ties through activities involving letters and some simple tests of phonemic awareness
sounds. It is written in a very simple format, that can be used to assess growth of these
and the activities are easy to implement skills before and after the program is
and described concisely in the manual. It is implemented.
not presented as an organized curriculum,
but the order of activities presented in the Range of Instructional Activities
manual does move gradually from easier to
more difficult. The activities in Sounds Abound focus on
four broad areas.
Rhyme
45
Sounds Abound
These activities teach children the sounds This is an excellent set of materials for
associated with seven consonants and five guiding phonemic awareness instruction in
vowels and then provide structured activi- kindergarten or first grade. Its primary
ties in which children learn to make differ- strengths are the simplicity of layout and
ent words by changing the first letter (e.g., the ease with which the activities can be
with __a t already given, the children can executed in the classroom. It may require a
make sat, fat, mat, pat, and rat by choos- bit more creativity on the part of the
ing different letters) teacher to maintain interest than a pro-
gram like Sound Start, since there is not an
Research Base elaborate game or activity structure devel-
oped for each of the instructional activities.
As with most of the programs described Sounds Abound would be a useful addition
here, there is no specific research support to any kindergarten program in phonologi-
for the Sounds Abound program as a cal awareness and could be used by para-
unique instructional sequence. However, professionals or parent volunteers to
all of the activities were taken directly from strengthen phonological awareness in
research projects that did show a signifi- small groups of children.
cant impact on the growth of phonological
awareness in young children.
46
Materials Included with Purchase
The Phonological
Awareness Kit, Both kits include a spiral-bound teacher’s
manual and supporting materials such as
Beginning and colored plastic blocks, picture cards, to-
kens, and letter tiles. The manual for the
Intermediate beginning program contains instructions
for 31 activities, while the intermediate
(Carolyn Robertson & Wanda Salter, 1995, manual includes 25. Many of the activities
1997) in the intermediate program are more
complex than those in the beginning
Kindergarten–Grade 2; manual because they are designed to be
used with older children. Both manuals
Grades 3–8 contain many excellent word lists that can
be used in support of the activities.
The Phonological Awareness Kit is a pro-
gram of instruction in phonological aware- Range of Instructional Activities
ness that comes in two versions. The begin-
ning kit is designed for small group or whole Both the beginning and intermediate kits
classroom instruction with children in kin- contain a range of instructional activities
dergarten through 2nd grade, while the appropriate to their intended age groups.
intermediate kit is appropriate for individual The activities in this program are not
or small group instruction with 3rd through embedded in as game-like a format as is
8th grade children who are having difficul- the case with some of the other programs,
ties acquiring phonemic awareness and but they are intended to be fun and could
phonetic reading skills. Both programs easily be adapted for use within games.
contain instructional activities and support- The activities in each kit are described
ing materials that can be used to provide a below:
comprehensive program of instruction in
phonemic awareness that begins with oral Beginning Level Kit
language activities and ends with letter-
sound and phonetic reading and spelling • Activities involving rhyme recognition
activities. and production
• Segmenting sentences into words and
compound words into root words
• Counting the syllables in words
• Many different activities involving
isolation, segmentation, blending,
Cost deletion, and substitution of phonemes
in words
$69.95 for each kit, which includes a • Activities involving letter sounds and
manual and all supportive material beginning reading and spelling
47
The Phonological Awareness Kit
48
Materials Included with Purchase
The Phonological
The Phonological Awareness Companion
Awareness comes in a spiral-bound notebook. In
addition to suggested teaching activities, it
Companion contains an extensive list of suggested
(The Wellington County Board of Education, books for the classroom that can be used
1995) to help draw children’s attention to the
sounds in words. It also contains word
Kindergarten–Grade 1 lists that can be used in a variety of pho-
nological awareness activities. A unique
feature of this notebook is that it also
This is really a compilation of teaching
contains materials for parents: both a
suggestions for teachers in kindergarten
general guide to activities that can be done
through second grade rather than a fully
to foster literacy development in the home
developed set of curriculum materials. It
and pre-drafted letters that can be sent
was developed to provide teaching sugges-
home to parents with suggestions for
tions and lists of resource materials in
specific activities to stimulate phonological
support of six learning objectives to prepare
awareness.
children for instruction in reading. It is
designed for teachers who enjoy developing
their own specific activities but who would
Range of Instructional Activities
like an overall guide to the essential ele-
ments of a curriculum in phonological This curriculum guide is organized around
awareness. six learning outcomes. Each learning
outcome is broken down into several es-
sential skills. Suggestions for instruction
are focused on these essential skills. The
six learning outcomes in the program
include the following:
LinguiSystems
Research Base
3100 4th Avenue
East Moline, IL 61244 The specific program outlined in the Phono-
800-776-4332 logical Awareness Companion has not been
49
The Phonological Awareness Companion
50
Materials Included with Purchase
Peer Assisted
Learning Strategies All the materials necessary for implement-
ing this program are included in a loose-
for Beginning leaf binder. These materials include highly
scripted lessons that teachers can use to
Readers teach children the tutoring procedures,
instructions on details of program manage-
(Patricia Mathes, Jill Howard, Joseph ment (e.g., scheduling students, how to
Torgesen, & Barbara Edwards, 1997) handle absenteeism), materials like score
boards that are helpful in program man-
Grades 1 and 2 agement, and 57 student lesson sheets.
The manual is very readable and is laid out
Peer Assisted Learning Strategies for Be- in a logical and easy to understand man-
ginning Readers (PALS) is a program to ner.
stimulate phonological awareness and build
beginning reading skills in first and second Range of Instructional Activities
grade children. Its development has been,
and continues to be, supported by grants The lesson manual provides procedures for
from the U.S. Office of Education. It is based two kinds of activities: Sounds and Words
on extensive research using older children and Story Sharing. The latter type of activ-
as peer tutors, and it has adapted many of ity is designed to support reading compre-
the principles learned in that work for use hension and will not be discussed here
with younger children. While the programs because that is not the focus of this
for first and second grade children are manual. The Sounds and Words activity
essentially complete, they are currently focuses on five essential phonological
undergoing refinement in a series of re- skills:
search studies, and a program for kinder-
garten children is under development. • Identify letter-sound correspondences
Computer-based methods for assessment of automatically
the skills taught in the program are also • Understand that words are constructed
undergoing development. The current pro- of individual sounds
grams can be completed in about 16 weeks • Blend sounds together to sound out
if peer tutoring sessions are scheduled three words
times a week for about 30 minutes. • Recognize sight words
• Integrate phonological knowledge into
Cost the act of reading
$30 for the manual, which includes all In the current version for first- and sec-
lesson materials to operate the program; ond-grade students, this program allows
$12 for a videotape demonstrating use of children to practice oral language phone-
the lessons mic awareness activities at the same time
they are learning about print. The major
Ordering phonemic awareness activity in the pro-
gram asks children to “say words slowly”
Patricia Mathes while they show the number of sounds
Department of Special Education with their fingers. During the preparation
Florida State University lessons which are led by the teacher and
Tallahassee, FL 32306-3024 done with the whole class, children also
850-644-4880 play the “first sound” game in which they
51
Peer Assisted Learning Strategies for Beginning Readers
52
Daisy Quest and Materials Included with Purchase
53
Daisy Quest and Daisy’s Castle
54
Waterford Early Materials Included with Purchase
55
Waterford Early Reading Program
The activities in each component are varied Waterford Early Reading Program is a
from day to day and build in a sequence standard curriculum that will remain in
from simpler to more difficult activities. place even if trained teachers move away
The program keeps track of children’s from a school or if district policies about
progress and automatically provides the teacher training and support change. The
instruction their development warrants. most important question is really whether
a high-quality, computer-based curriculum
Research Base will provide more long-term stability for
appropriate and effective instruction than
The Level 1 curriculum has been evaluated will the less costly materials that depend
at numerous sites around the country, on teacher training and support to imple-
ranging from large urban schools to subur- ment effectively.
ban schools to rural schools. The addition
of the computer experiences to the stan- General
dard kindergarten curriculum has consis-
tently produced large gains in pre-reading The Waterford Early Reading Program is
skills at the end of the year. Measures have almost certainly the most comprehensive,
included tests of phonological awareness, highest quality computer-based curricu-
letter knowledge, and concepts about lum in essential pre-reading skills cur-
print. The major unknown at present rently available. Evidence suggests that it
about this curriculum is whether it will is effective in teaching phonological aware-
prove to be more effective than less costly ness and other important skills necessary
teacher-led interventions. No studies are to early reading growth. It does not require
currently available to indicate that it will extensive teacher training to implement,
produce larger gains in pre-reading skills although its overall effectiveness might be
than might be obtained through teacher significantly enhanced if teachers were
training in a kindergarten curriculum more carefully trained to use the supple-
focusing on the same skills. However, this mental materials provided within the
may not be the crucial question. The program.
56
Read, Write, and Materials Included with Purchase
57
Read, Write, and Type
Initial instruction in how to type the children in first and second grades being
sound—This includes direct instruction able to acquire useful typing skills and
and modeling by animated “hands” as well improve their ability to spell and apply
as practice typing the phoneme in words phonetic reading skills during reading. In
and short phrases. an ongoing study in Tallahassee (Torgesen,
Rashotte, & Wagner, 1997), the program
Phonemic awareness—This activity pro- has been used with small groups (three
vides practice in “listening” for the sound children) of at-risk children in four 50-
within words. The child is shown a picture minute sessions a week for eight months of
and must indicate whether the given pho- the school year. Although these children
neme occurs at the beginning, middle, or began the year with reading skills substan-
end of the word. tially below their peers, their scores on
phonetic reading ability, sight-word read-
Practicing the phoneme in the context of a ing, and passage comprehension were all
story—This activity requires the child to average to slightly above average at the end
type a simple story dictated by the com- of the year. We also found that almost all
puter and made up of words and pho- the children could learn useful typing
nemes the child should know. There is skills from the program. The first year’s
substantial visual support and prompting instruction is now being replicated with
to help children with this task. another group of children.
58
Earobics Materials Included with Purchase
59
Earobics
60
Materials Included with Purchase
Launch into Reading
Success through This program is packaged in a three-ring
binder that contains the manual as well as
Phonological all of the word lists and pictures to be used
in the activities. Also included are two
Awareness Training laminated game boards used in several of
the activities. Some additional materials
(Lorna Bennett & Pamela Ottley, 1996) are required for some of the activities, but
these should be readily available in any
Kindergarten–Grade 1 kindergarten or first-grade classroom.
61
Launch into Reading Success through Phonological Awareness Training
62
Materials Included with Purchase
Phonological
Awareness Training Materials in the program kit include an
instructors manual, two game boards, a
for Reading large picture of Rocky the Robot that is
used during sound-blending activities, six
(Joseph Torgesen & Bryan Bryant, 1994) sets of laminated picture cards, a set of
letter cards, several solid color cards for
Kindergarten–Grade 2 use in phoneme-counting activities, col-
ored game tokens, and an audiotape that
The Phonological Awareness Training for illustrates how to pronounce phonemes in
Reading program was developed with the isolation. All materials necessary for in-
support of a grant from the National Insti- struction are included in the kit.
tute for Child Health and Human Develop-
ment. It was designed to provide small- Range of Instructional Activities
group instruction for children with weak-
nesses in the area of phonological aware- The phonological awareness skills in this
ness. It is highly scripted so that it can be program are taught and practiced using a
followed by teachers without special train- sequence of wordsets. This structure was
ing. If it is used in 30-minute sessions three used so that children could become very
times a week, it can be completed in slightly familiar with a small set of sounds by
less than one semester of instruction. working within wordsets that contained a
restricted number of phonemes. Each new
wordset introduces three new consonant
phonemes, for which mouth and tongue
positions are explicitly taught. This was
designed to make the awareness tasks
easier. As the same activities are practiced
across different wordsets, children’s
awareness skills should become more
generalized.
63
Phonological Awareness Training fPor Reading
64
Materials Included with Purchase
The Lindamood
Phoneme The LiPS complete classroom version
includes the trainer’s manual; research
Sequencing Program booklet; audiocassette; videotape; and a
variety of instructional support materials,
for Reading, including letter tiles, mouth-form pictures
and cards, colored blocks, and colored felt
Spelling, and Speech squares. The manual contains extensive
descriptions of instructional procedures, as
(Patricia and Phyllis Lindamood, 1998) well as a complete discussion of the in-
structional philosophy and goals of the
LiPS replaces Auditory Discrimination in Depth program.
(1984) by Patricia and Charles Lindamood.
This multisensory program is designed to Range of Instructional Activities
stimulate phonemic awareness and to teach
phonemic reading skills to children with The LiPS program contains instructional
moderate to severe phonological disabilities. activities extending all the way into fully
Its unique feature is that it helps children developed phonics instruction and strate-
discover the articulatory and motor features of gies for reading and spelling multisyllable
phonemes and track sounds within speech. It words. Since the focus of this manual is on
has been used for many years in clinical phonological awareness, our description
settings with people with severe reading will focus primarily on that aspect of the
disabilities but may also be appropriate for program.
preventive instruction with children at-risk for
reading disabilities. LiPS is more complex than The initial instructional activities of the
the other programs described in this manual; program are designed to help children
extensive teacher training is required to imple- become aware of the specific mouth move-
ment it successfully. ments associated with each phoneme in
the English language. The emphasis in the
Cost LiPS program is on the discovery method of
learning. That is, the mouth movements
$449 for the classroom kit associated with each phoneme are not
directly taught by the teacher. Rather, the
There is now available through Lindamood-
child is helped to discover this information
Bell Learning Processes (LBLP) a CD-ROM
by the teacher, whose role is to ask care-
that contains an extensive set of practice
fully focused questions that guide the
activities in support of this program. It is
discovery process. Once children become
designed as practice for students currently
aware of the mouth movements required to
receiving instruction in the LiPS program.
make a given phoneme, they learn labels
We do not recommend that teachers simply
for each phoneme that are descriptive of
buy the kit and begin to use it without the
place and manner of articulation (e.g., “lip
special training that is offered through LBLP.
popper” or “tip tapper”), and they learn to
associate each sound with a picture show-
Ordering ing a mouth making the sound (mouth-
form pictures). Children work initially with
PRO-ED
a small group of consonant and vowel
8700 Shoal Creek Blvd.
sounds, and once they have learned the
Austin, TX 78757-6897
labels and mouth/form pictures associated
512-451-3246
65
Auditory Discrimination in Depth
66
Software This section provides a brief description of
software that is currently being mass
marketed to provide instruction and prac-
to Build tice in a variety of pre-reading skills. These
programs are primarily intended for home
use but are also being used in many kin-
Pre-Reading dergarten and first-grade classrooms. We
initially reviewed this material to determine
Section 4
67
Software Considered in This Review
Program Name Publisher Ages PA Activities?
A to Zap Sunburst K to G2 No
68
Phonemic Awareness Most Highly
Activities in Software Recommended Software
Programs Programs
Bailey’s Bookhouse Bailey’s Bookhouse
Choosing rhyming words, choosing words This is an excellent program that not only
beginning with same sound, choosing contains activities that will stimulate
words to complete a rhyme phonological awareness, but also others
that teach about letters and their sounds
Curious George Young Readers Series and story construction. The guide that
Choosing a word to complete a rhyme accompanies the program provides ex-
amples of home exercises the child and
Get Set for Kindergarten parent can participate in together. The
Choosing words that rhyme with one directions for the program are clear and
another easy to follow.
Toddlers Deluxe
Finding words that begin with a given
sound; selecting words to complete a
rhyme
69
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