Development of phonological sensitivity in 2- to 5-year-old children.

Abstract

This study examined phonological sensitivity in 238 children from middle-to upper-income families and 118 children from lower-income families across different levels of linguistic complexity. Children ranged in age from 2 to 5 years. Overall, the results indicated that as children increased in age, phonological sensitivity both increased in absolute terms and became more stable. Significant social class differences in growth of phonological sensitivity were also obtained. Phonological sensitivity at different levels of linguistic complexity (e.g., syllables, phonemes) was substantially interrelated at each age and predicted word reading ability in older children independently of language skills and letter knowledge. These results indicate that phonological sensitivity can be assessed in young preschool children and that lower levels of phonological sensitivity may serve as developmental precursors to higher levels of phonological sensitivity.

Development of emergent literacy and early reading skills in preschool children: Evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study.

“…Except as noted below, tasks administered at Time 1 and Time 2 and to younger and older children included the same items. Previous analyses of these four tasks indicated that they had moderate to high internal consistencies for 4-year-olds (as = .47 to .96) and 5-year-olds (as = .69 to .94) but lower internal consistencies for 2-and 3-year-olds (see Lonigan et al, 1998).…”

“…Additionally, oral language appears to be related to a second emergent literacy skill, phonological sensitivity, as defined below. Studies of both preschool (e.g., Chaney, 1992;Lonigan, Burgess, Anthony, & Barker, 1998) and early elementary school children (e.g., Bowey, 1994;Wagner, Torgesen, Laughon, Simmons, & Rashotte, 1993;Wagner et al, 1997) have demonstrated significant concurrent and longitudinal correlations between children's vocabulary skills and their phonological sensitivity.…”

“…For example, Lonigan et al (1998) demonstrated that preschool children's performance on tasks measuring phonological sensitivity at the syllable, onset-rime, and phoneme levels was associated with measures of letter knowledge and decoding. Similarly, studies of school-age children by Wagner and colleagues (Wagner et al, 1993(Wagner et al, , 1994(Wagner et al, , 1997 found that a latent variable defined by rhyme, syllable-level, and phoneme-level tasks was associated strongly, concurrently, and longitudinally with children's reading skills.…”

“…Children achieve syllabic sensitivity earlier than they achieve sensitivity to phonemes, and children's sensitivity to in-trasyllabic units (i.e., onset-rime) also precedes sensitivity to phonemes (Fox & Routh, 1975;I. Liberman, Shankweiler, Fischer, & Carter, 1974;Lonigan et al, 1998;Treiman, 1992). However, there is controversy concerning whether sensitivity to lower levels of linguistic complexity (i.e., syllables, onset-rime) represents processes important for reading.…”

Quality of language and literacy instruction in preschool classrooms serving at-risk pupils

“…Conversely, children who enter kindergarten with relatively under-developed language and literacy skills are more likely than their higher-achieving peers to exhibit difficulties in both immediate and long-term reading development (Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000;O'Connor & Jenkins, 1999). Whereas children's early literacy and language achievements are relatively malleable in the preschool years, these skills become increasingly stable during the elementary grades (see Lonigan, Burgess, Anthony, & Barker, 1998). Consequently, more intensive remediation efforts become necessary to bring children's language and literacy skills to grade-level performance than are necessary during the preschool years.…”