Phonemic Awareness in Children is a Powerful Predictor of Reading Success

Numerous studies have shown demonstrated that the early development of phonemic awareness and phonics skills is integral to reading success.  Research also indicates that music has a significant effect in the development of young children’s phonemic awareness, particularly in their phoneme-segmentation fluency.

“Active music-making and the association of sound with developmentally appropriate symbols may develop cognitive processes similar to those needed for segmentation of a spoken word into its phonemes.” (Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name.Gromko, The Effect of Music Instruction on Phonemic Awareness in Beginning Readers, Journal of Research in Music Education, 2005)

“Phonemic  awareness is the most powerful predictor of reading success. It is more highly correlated with ready success than socio-economic status, general intelligence or listening comprehension.” (Stanovich, 1986, 1994)

“Phonemic awareness directly assists preliterate children in their understanding  of letter-sound correspondences and successful reading acquisition skills.” Castles, Colheart, Wilson, Valpied, Wedgwood, The Genesis of Reading Ability: What Helps Children Learn Letter-Sound Correspondences, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2009)

“The major problem predisposing children to having reading disabilities is a lack of phonological processing ability.” (Lyons, The National Institute of Child, Health and Human Development Study, 1997)

Beginning Reading/ Literacy Development Resources:

• Education Resources Information Center – The Education Resources Information Center, is the world’s largest digital library of education literature, including numerous articles on early literacy development research.
• National Literacy Trust – An independent charity that provides the latest research, news and policies related to literacy.
• Education Week – A rich source of information about a wide variety of topics including research and issues in education and phonics.
• National Reading Panel – Download reports and request free materials, including a video on the report of the National Reading Panel.
• The Partnership for Reading – This site provides comprehensive information about effective reading instruction, including research on phonics. Links to resources and downloadable materials and online discussion features complement the basic information contained on this site.
• Reading Rockets – This fun and informative site contains a wealth of information about research and issues important to phonics and beginning reading instruction.