One complicated extended family: the influence of alphabetic knowledge and vocabulary on phonemic awareness
Abstract
This research evaluated possible sources of individual differences in early explicit, smaller segment phonological awareness. In particular, the unique contributions of oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge to phonemic awareness acquisition were examined across the first year of school. A total of 57 participants were tested in kindergarten (mean age 5 years, 8 months) and again 1 year later midway through Grade 1. Results revealed that oral vocabulary and alphabetic knowledge were correlated with concurrent larger segment phonological awareness and phonemic blending in kindergarten whereas oral vocabulary was the only measure that predicted unique variance in phonemic awareness into Grade 1. Further, this pattern of results was most pronounced for analytic (segmenting), as opposed to synthetic (blending), phonemic awareness. These results highlight the importance of different component processes to explicit, smaller segment awareness depending upon the developmental period under study and also accentuate the need to separate analytic from synthetic phonemic awareness in literacy research.
Number of times cited: 8
- Giseli D. Germano, Alexandra B. P. de C. César and Simone A. Capellini, Screening Protocol for Early Identification of Brazilian Children at Risk for Dyslexia, Frontiers in Psychology, 8, (2017).
- Raúl Gutiérrez-Fresneda, Longitudinal Study on the Development of Literacy Skills During Literacy, Revista de Psicodidáctica (English ed.), (2017).
- Christopher J. Lonigan, Literacy Development, Handbook of Child Psychology and Developmental Science, (1-43), (2015).
- Holly Lane and Paige Cullen Pullen, Blending Wheels, TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48, 2, (86), (2015).
- Gene Ouellette and Emma Shaw, Oral vocabulary and reading comprehension: An intricate affair, L’Année psychologique, 114, 04, (623), (2014).
- Alison W Arrow and Claire J McLachlan, The development of phonological awareness and letter knowledge in young New Zealand children, Speech, Language and Hearing, 17, 1, (49), (2014).
- Kathleen Hipfner-Boucher, Trelani Milburn, Elaine Weitzman, Janice Greenberg, Janette Pelletier and Luigi Girolametto, Relationships between preschoolers’ oral language and phonological awareness, First Language, 34, 2, (178), (2014).
- Maike Malda, Carisma Nel and Fons J.R. van de Vijver, The road to reading for South African learners: The role of orthographic depth, Learning and Individual Differences, 30, (34), (2014).
