Theoretical Explanations for Preschoolers' Lowercase Alphabet Knowledge

Turnbull, Khara L.P.; Bowles, Ryan P.; Skibbe, Lori E.; Justice, Laura M.; Wiggins, Alice

doi:10.1044/1092-4388(2010/09-0093)

Cited by 27 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…For example, in their experiences with environmental print and shared book reading, children are much more likely to encounter the uppercase letter T and lowercase letter e than they are to encounter letters such as Z and q . Some studies have found that children are more likely to know the names of more frequent letters (Pence Turnbull et al., ), but others have found that children show no difference in their knowledge of individual letters based on frequency (Evans, Bell, Shaw, Moretti, & Page, ; Treiman & Kessler, ; Treiman et al., ).…”

Section: Differences Across Lettersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving to Assessment‐Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge

Piasta¹

2014

The Reading Teacher

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Early childhood educators are increasingly asked to support the alphabet knowledge development of children enrolled in their classrooms. Children in the same classroom, however, often show vastly different alphabet learning needs. Moreover, recent research suggests that some letters are more difficult to learn. These facts run counter to one‐size‐fits‐all whole‐class instructional approaches, which typically provide the same instruction to all children and for all letters. The purpose of this article is to encourage early childhood educators to move beyond whole‐class approaches and instead provide alphabet instruction that is aligned with current emphases on assessment‐driven decision making and differentiated instruction. The article reviews the importance of alphabet knowledge with respect to theory, research, and the current educational context, summarizes recent research concerning children's alphabet knowledge development, and provides a framework in which assessment guides differentiated alphabet instruction, along with empirically‐validated practices for such instruction.

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Section: Differences Across Lettersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving to Assessment‐Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge

Piasta¹

2014

The Reading Teacher

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“…First steps towards literacy often involve teaching children about individual letters and the sounds the letters represent [3] [32] [57]. These first steps involve a) letter naming, b) phonics, and c) phonemic awareness approaches [8] [29] [58].…”

Section: Research On Letter and Letter-sound Teaching Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in Mean Number of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words Decoded between Letter-Sound Readers and Non Letter-Sound Readers

Wolf¹

2014

OJN

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Children's failure to develop simple word decoding skills in early years is linked to future poor reading, school dropout, and poor health [1] [2]. Letter-sound knowledge is needed for word decoding development; however questions remain on what types of letter-sound knowledge help children decode simple words [3]. This study investigated the differences in mean number of consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words decoded between two groups of children, a letter-sound reading group and non letter-sound reading group. Children aged 4 to 6 in both groups, attempted to decode a variety of simple words such as tan, sit, hen, pig, dot, and fun. Analysis determined word decoding differences existed between the two groups. The alternate hypothesis was accepted; the letter-sound reading group had a significantly higher mean in number of consonantvowel-consonant words decoded compared to the non letter-sound reading group. The study informs the teaching approaches needed to improve early decoding skills showing letter-sound reading ability is an important step for learning to decode simple consonant-vowel-consonant words.

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“…Some researchers have looked for frequency effects in children’s learning of letter names by examining the frequency with which letters occur in books, or specifically in books that are designed for children. Such effects are small and in some cases not statistically significant among 3- to 5-year-old learners of the Latin alphabet (Ecalle, 2004 for French; Evans et al, 2006; Treiman & Kessler 2004; Treiman et al, 2006, 2007; Turnbull, Bowles, Skibbe, Justice, & Wiggins, in press for English). However, the effects appear to increase with age (Bouchière, Ponce, & Foulin, 2010 for French), and a study of Israeli 5- and 6-year-olds found statistically significant frequency effects in letter naming (Treiman et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…These models are increasingly used in psycholinguistic research with adults. In studies of children’s letter learning, they have been used so far only with English and only with the dependent variable of correct responses (Justice et al, 2006; Kim et al, 2010; Piasta & Wagner, 2010; Turnbull et al, in press). In the present study, we used multilevel models to analyze several types of responses in the letter-sound task, including both C and CV responses as defined earlier.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking the shapes of alphabet letters to their sounds: the case of Hebrew

2010

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Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter's name) are easier to learn than others (such as that of w, where the sound is not in the name). The present study examined Hebrew, where variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names are minimal. In a study of 391 Israeli children with a mean age of 5 years, 10 months, we used multilevel models to examine the factors that are associated with knowledge of letter sounds. One set of factors involved letter names: Children sometimes attributed to a letter a consonant-vowel sound consisting of the first phonemes of the letter's name. A second set of factors involved contrast: Children had difficulty when there was relatively little contrast in shape between one letter and others. Frequency was also important, encompassing both child-specific effects, such as a benefit for the first letter of a child's forename, and effects that held true across children, such as a benefit for the first letters of the alphabet. These factors reflect general properties of human learning.

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Theoretical Explanations for Preschoolers' Lowercase Alphabet Knowledge

Abstract: Findings suggest that transference from uppercase letter knowledge may be a primary mechanism for lowercase letter knowledge and that young children's knowledge of the lowercase alphabet letters is multiply determined.

Cited by 27 publications

References 53 publications

Moving to Assessment‐Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge

Moving to Assessment‐Guided Differentiated Instruction to Support Young Children's Alphabet Knowledge

Differences in Mean Number of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words Decoded between Letter-Sound Readers and Non Letter-Sound Readers

Linking the shapes of alphabet letters to their sounds: the case of Hebrew

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