Assessing phonemic awareness in kindergarten: The case for the phoneme recognition task

The validity of phoneme recognition as an indicator of phonemic awareness at kindergarten age is investigated. Six paper and pencil phonemic awareness (PA) tests, phoneme recognition among them, are administered groupwise to Dutch children a few months before the beginning of formal literacy educati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied psycholinguistics 2003-06, Vol.24 (2), p.195-219
Main Authors: VAN BON, W. H. J., VAN LEEUWE, J. F. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Developmental psychology
Dutch language
Dyslexia
Early literacy
Early Reading
Education
Educational psychology
Foreign Countries
Kindergarten
Kindergarten Children
Literacy
Literacy Education
Longitudinal studies
Phonemes
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemics
Phonological awareness
Phonology
Reading comprehension
Reading Skills
Reading tests
Recognition
Second Language Instruction
Second Language Learning
Segmentation
Skills
Speech
Testing
Validity
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Summary:The validity of phoneme recognition as an indicator of phonemic awareness at kindergarten age is investigated. Six paper and pencil phonemic awareness (PA) tests, phoneme recognition among them, are administered groupwise to Dutch children a few months before the beginning of formal literacy education. Additional phonological tests and an early reading test are administered individually. Ten months later, children are tested again with PA and literacy tests. Structural equation modeling shows the relations among tests to correspond broadly with findings reported in the literature. The PA test scores are determined by one common factor, and the early PA factor influences later literacy through its influence on later PA skill. Phoneme segmentation has the highest loading on the PA factor, but phoneme recognition is its best paper and pencil representative. Unlike phoneme segmentation, phoneme recognition competence can develop in the absence of literacy skills. Phoneme recognition equals phoneme segmentation in sensitivity and specificity when predicting later literacy failure.
ISSN:0142-7164
1469-1817
DOI:10.1017/S0142716403000109