The demand for confident reading teachers is greater than ever before. To guarantee successful reading instruction, teachers across the nation are being trained in the science of reading, which focuses on explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Large reading initiatives are tirelessly working on…

The purpose of this experimental study was to examine the contribution of phoneme awareness training and orthography to the learning of new vocabulary words by partial alphabetic phase readers. Hypotheses included: Preschoolers taught to phonemically segment words with letters would outperform those trained without letters on an invented spelling…

This research applies Socio-Cultural theory and Distributed Cognition/Activity theory to conceptualize the design of collaborative learning activities in large shared digital spaces. The paper begins by providing a summary of previous work in the creation of a technology platform for large shared digital spaces. It then details how Socio-Cultural…

This study investigated two-month-old infants' memory for phonetic information using the high-amplitude-sucking procedure (HAS). Specifically, the study explored whether the availability of prosodic organization enhances infants' memory for the phonetic information they hear. After a baseline measure was obtained, infant sucking resulted in a…

Noting the National Reading Panel's suggestions on assessing and improving children's phonemic awareness, this paper discusses how reading can be improved through think-alouds and visualizations. Comprehension strategies that teachers can model during think-alouds are: activating prior knowledge; building vocabulary; determining importance;…

Since one way to study a non-reading primary child's phonics knowledge is to examine his/her invented spelling, a researcher's quandary led to a quasi-experimental design study, employed to answer three questions: (1) Do primary non-readers possess phonics knowledge? (2) Do primary non-readers possess phonemic awareness? and (3) Do primary…

A study explored whether "typical" children (i.e., those who have not been identified as language-delayed but who have a low level of phonological awareness) differ in aspects of oral language and orthographic processing skills from those children with higher phonological awareness. Subjects were 17 children (ranging in age from 3 years…

This report describes a program for increasing phonemic awareness in the primary grades. The targeted population consisted of first and second grade students from middle class communities located in the Midwest. Research indicated that students who enter primary grades without phonemic awareness might have reading difficulties. Lack of phonemic…

This report describes a program for improving reading comprehension. The targeted population consists of first, second, third, and fourth grade classrooms in a middle class community located in a suburb of a large midwestern city. The problem regarding poor comprehension skills is evident from teacher observation, student performance, previous…

Phonological awareness has little, if anything, to do with reading or the acquisition of literacy. Learned opinion has been divided as to the relationship of phonological awareness and reading. Some scholars hold that the ability to analyze speech into discrete phonic segments is a precursor to, even a cause of, successful reading acquisition,…

A study investigated the effect of phonemic awareness and cognitive flexibility training on the phonemic awareness, cognitive flexibility, reading, and spelling ability of kindergarten and first-grade students. Subjects were 280 students from 12 classrooms in 3 urban elementary schools. Four pre- and posttest measures were administered. Students…

A study gathered data on the effectiveness of four phonological awareness measures in predicting reading outcome in first grade. The "Test of Non-Verbal Intelligence" (TONI) and the "Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test" (PPVT) were used to assess the cognitive abilities of 54 first-graders from a middle class elementary school in a…

To examine the effects of phonemic awareness (defined as "conscious access to the phonemic level of the speech stream and some ability to cognitively manipulate representations at this level") on spelling development and to explore the relationship of phonemic awareness to recognized stages of spelling development, a study collected data…

Phonemic awareness and writing are thought to be important contributors to a child's success with reading. However, studies of "exceptional" children have shown contrary results. The Knowledge Sources theory is used to explain these results with regard to explicit and implicit generation procedures that have their source in the child's reading…

A study examined the relation between phonemic awareness and reading across the full range of decoding abilities in adults; determined if phonemic awareness can be taught to low-literate adults in one 45-minute session; and determined the effect of phonemic awareness training on the acquisition of decoding skills by low-literate and illiterate…