The dimensionality of phonological awareness among Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children: a longitudinal study

Abstract

Phonological awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading. However, there is still controversy concerning its dimensionality. This study evaluated the dimensionality of phonological awareness among Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children. A total of 212 children performed six phonological awareness tasks in the last year of kindergarten. Of those children, 177 performed the same tasks when they were in the first grade. The phonological awareness measures differed in both their cognitive demand (detection, blending, segmentation, and elision) and the phonological unit involved (rhyme, syllable, and phoneme). Confirmatory factor analyzes were employed to test several models of phonological awareness dimensionality. The results indicated that the best model was an oblique model of phonological units with two correlated latent factors: phonemic awareness and supraphonemic awareness. This model presented the best fit to the data both in kindergarten and in the first grade. In addition, supraphonemic awareness in the kindergarten predicted phoneme awareness in the first grade; however, phonemic awareness in the kindergarten did not predict supraphonemic awareness in the first grade. These results are compatible with phonological awareness developing from larger phonological units (e.g., syllables) to small phonological units (e.g., phonemes) and the reciprocal relationship between phonological awareness and reading. From a theoretical point of view, these results also suggest that phonological awareness is a one-dimensional construct that can be evaluated by tests employing different phonological units (e.g., syllables, rhymes, phonemes).

Phonological awareness tasks: Accuracy in predicting reading and writing difficulties

“…Considering the dimensionality and the developmental facets of phonological awareness in previous research (e.g., Justi et al, 2021), three composite measures of phonological awareness were evaluated: supra-phonemic awareness (sum of scores on supra-phonemic tasks: syllable blending and syllable segmentation); phonemic awareness (sum of scores on phonemic tasks: phoneme blending, phoneme segmentation, and phoneme elision); and total phonological awareness (sum of scores on phonemic and supra-phonemic tasks). These measures were calculated to enable the analysis of the accuracy of the at-risk/not-at-risk classification of reading and writing difficulties by the authors of this research.…”

Phonological Awareness Assessment Test (PACOF) for Pre-school Children: Evidence of Validity and Reliability

“…Phonological awareness has been defined as the ability to discriminate, identify, and manipulate the units of oral language, such as phonemes, onset-rimes, syllables, or words (Bdeir et al, 2022;Herrera et al, 2021;Justi et al, 2021). Thus, it involves phonological sensitivity, but also metalinguistic abilities.…”

“…These last types of tasks can be performed for units positioned anywhere within the word (at the beginning, middle, or end of the word). Research has also indicated that syllable, intra-syllable, and phoneme awareness are distinguishable, yet intercorrelated, dimensions of phonological awareness (Defior & Serrano, 2011;Justi et al, 2021;Meira et al, 2019).…”

The examination of the variables affecting the print awareness skills of six-year-old children attending kindergarten

“…Although writing readiness skills have been recognized as a crucial predictor of reading skills (Hammil, 2004), only a limited number of studies have specifically focused on the predictive effect of writing readiness skills. Conversely, numerous studies have examined the predictive effect of reading skills (Gerde, Bingham, & Wasik, 2012;Hooper et al, 2010;Justi, Henriques, & Justi, 2021;Vadasy, Sanders, & Abbott, 2008). These studies have found that certain skills, such as phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, print awareness, and vocabulary, are predictors of writing skills.…”