Twenty-two years ago, the National Reading Panel (2000) released a research synthesis of effective reading practices for classroom instruction. The first is phonemic awareness. The others are phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This study examined the connection of assessment for kindergarten through second-grade students in the…

More than one third of American children cannot read at a basic level by fourth grade (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) and those numbers are even higher for African American, Hispanic and poor White students (Boorman et al., 2007). These are alarming statistics given that the ability to read is the most basic and fundamental skill for academic…

Examines the extent to which preschool children are aware of and acquire the phonemic structure of the spoken word. Tests 4-year-old nonreaders, assessing product name reading ability, knowledge of the alphabet, rhyme skills, and explicit phonemic awareness ability. Finds subjects acquired knowledge of the alphabet before they showed explicit…

Posits that alphabet books might be one connection between success in phonemic awareness tasks and high levels of alphabet knowledge. Gives three treatments to different groups of prekindergartners. Finds that all groups gained in print concept and letter knowledge, but the conventional alphabet group gained most in phoneme awareness. (PA)

Study examined whether phonemic sensitivity is limited to alphabetically literate individuals. Children not exposed to reading instruction were given pairs of phonological sensitivity tasks. Novice readers scored higher in phonological sensitivity than nonreaders of equivalent letter knowledge, when controlled for verbal ability; among nonreaders,…

Evaluates the effects of training in phonemic segmentation and of instruction in letter names and letter sounds on kindergarten children's reading and spelling skills. Finds that phoneme awareness instruction, combined with instruction connecting the phonemic segments to alphabet letters, significantly improves the early reading and spelling…

Early childhood educators are concerned with the most effective method of integrating whole language and phonics to maximize emergent literacy skills. In kindergarten, it is especially important to provide the students with a variety of institutional approaches to accommodate different learning styles. A study examined the effectiveness of Super…

In this article the authors review the reading status of urban learners and examine the role of phonemic awareness in reading acquisition. Their review indicates that phonemic awareness alone is not sufficient for reading acquisition, and that phonemic awareness in combination with alphabetic principle is needed to promote reading competence. The…

Examines a program in Denmark that uses metalinguistic games and exercises to stimulate preschool children's discovery of the phonological structure of language. Concludes that phonological awareness can be developed outside the context of the acquisition of an alphabetic writing system, and that this awareness facilitates subsequent reading and…