Phonemic awareness and letter knowledge in the child's acquisition of the alphabetic principle.

Explicit and systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, and phonics are critical for children who are struggling to read words. Further, it is the responsibility of the speech-language pathologist (SLP) to provide intervention for students that present with written language difficulties including those who have not yet been identified as having a disability. This paper serves as a guide for SLPs who aim to improve the word reading skills of young elementary-age students in a small group setting, characteristic of Tier 2 in a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework. First, phonemic awareness, the alphabetic principle, and phonics are defined and their critical roles for success with early word reading are discussed. Next, examples of activities addressing each of these skills are provided including the rationale for each activity, required materials, and additional considerations and/or modifications for students with varying skill levels. The paper concludes with further important considerations when addressing the word reading skills of young struggling readers.

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Validity of a Non-Speech Dynamic Assessment of Phonemic Awareness via the Alphabetic Principle

Augmentative and Alternative Communication ◽

10.3109/07434618.2014.880190 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 71-82 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

R. Michael Barker ◽

Mindy Sittner Bridges ◽

Kathryn J. Saunders

Keyword(s):

Phonemic Awareness ◽

Dynamic Assessment ◽

Alphabetic Principle

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The Relation Between Linguistic Awareness Skills and Spelling in Adults: A Comparison Among Scoring Procedures

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2020_jslhr-19-00120 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 63 (4) ◽

pp. 1240-1253

Author(s):

Victoria S. Henbest ◽

Lisa Fitton ◽

Krystal L. Werfel ◽

Kenn Apel

Keyword(s):

Phonemic Awareness ◽

Concurrent Validity ◽

Word Reading ◽

Continuous Measure ◽

Scoring Methods ◽

Syntactic Awareness ◽

Scoring Method ◽

Spelling Performance ◽

Linguistic Awareness ◽

Average Readers

Purpose Spelling is a skill that relies on an individual's linguistic awareness, the ability to overtly manipulate language. The ability to accurately spell is important for academic and career success into adulthood. The spelling skills of adults have received some attention in the literature, but there is limited information regarding which approach for analyzing adults' spelling is optimal for guiding instruction or intervention for those who struggle. Thus, we aimed to examine the concurrent validity of four different scoring methods for measuring adults' spellings (a dichotomous scoring method and three continuous methods) and to determine whether adults' linguistic awareness skills differentially predict spelling outcomes based on the scoring method employed. Method Sixty undergraduate college students who were determined to be average readers as measured by a word reading and contextual word reading task were administered a spelling task as well as morphological, orthographic, phonemic, and syntactic awareness tasks. Results All four scoring methods were highly correlated suggesting high concurrent validity among the measures. Two linguistic awareness skills, morphological awareness and syntactic awareness, predicted spelling performance on both the dichotomous and continuous scoring methods. Contrastively, phonemic awareness and orthographic awareness predicted spelling performance only when spelling was scored using a continuous measure error analysis. Conclusions The results of this study confirm that multiple linguistic awareness skills are important for spelling in adults who are average readers. The results also highlight the need for using continuous measures of spelling when planning intervention or instruction, particularly in the areas of orthographic and phonemic awareness.

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