Training phonological awareness: A study with inner-city kindergarten children

Abstract

A small-scale, longitudinal, phonological awareness training study with inner-city kindergarten children was conducted in four classrooms. The central goals of the study were the creation and evaluation of a phonological awareness training program and a preliminary look at the consequence of that training on basic phonological processes.Assessment of phonological awareness and basic phonological processes was carried out in the fall of the kindergarten year, and again in the spring following an 18 week training program which incorporated both auditory and articulatory techniques for fostering metaphonological development. Follow-up evaluation of promotion to first grade and of reading achievement took place a year later. The children in the two experimental classes receiving training had significantly greater gains in phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten, were significantly more likely to be promoted to first grade rather than to pre-one, and had a trend toward better reading skills in first grade than did the smaller group of children promoted to first grade from the control classes. In addition, there were some indications that development of phonological awareness was accompanied by changes in the underlying phonological system as well. Here we focus on the rationale and implementation of our training program and discuss the implications of the findings for a potential large-scale study.

Phonological processing and emergent literacy in Spanish-speaking preschool children

“…One, phonological awareness instruction may have a secondary benefit of expanding phonological memory, even though the two are not perfectly related. This was found to be the case by Brady, Fowler, Stone, and Winbury (1994). Likewise, phonological memory instruction may serve secondarily to improve phonological awareness.…”

A Study of Classroom-Based Phonological Awareness Training for Preschoolers With Speech and/or Language Disorders

“…The vast majority of training studies of phonological awareness have been conducted with kindergarten and first grade children who are developing typically (e.g., Ball & Blachman, 1991;Blachman, Ball, Black, & Tangel, 1994;Bradley & Bryant, 1985;Brady, Fowler, Stone, & Winbury, 1994;Cunningham, 1990;Lundberg et al, 1988;Sawyer, 1988;Torgesen, Morgan, & Davis, 1992;Torneus, 1984;Treiman & Baron, 1993). Warrick, Rubin, and Rowe-Walsh (1993) successfully trained phonological awareness abilities in kindergartners with specific language impairment (SLI).…”

Estudo sobre a intervenção em crianças falantes do Português Europeu com atraso fonológico

“…Estes resultados também estão em concordância com Bowen e Cupples (1999) e Gillon (2000), dado que referem que todas as crianças apresentaram uma melhoria signifi cativa na diminuição de ocorrência dos processos fonológicos alvo de intervenção. Adicionalmente, os progressos supracitados, ao nível da consciência fonológica, têm infl uência na adequação do sistema fonológico, o que pode ter contribuído para a referida diminuição dos processos fonológicos nas crianças deste estudo (Brady et al, 1994). Verifi cou-se ainda, no presente estudo, que outros processos fonológicos, diminuíram ligeiramente a sua percentagem de ocorrência, de forma espontânea.…”