The Role of Phonological Units during Reading Development

FUMAGALLI, J.; JAICHENCO, V.; RAITER, A.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; INS-SONEPSA Mid Year Meeting; 2008

INS-SONEPSA

Objective: The present study examines the sensibility to phonological units: syllable, phonemes, rimes and onsets, in preliterate and literate children. One important concern of this study is to establish if the position of the unit is relevant for recognition processes.Procedure:  The study involved 145 children from: preschool, kindergarten, 1st grade, 3rd grade and 6th. Children were assessed with Buscasílaba, this test was used to determine children’s ability to recognize a syllable previously presented in a group of words that includes this syllable at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the word and with Buscasonido, a battery used to assess children’s ability to recognize a phoneme previously presented in words that have the sound in different positions. Preschool and kindergarteners were also tested with a task in which children were asked to identify drawings beginning or ending with the some syllable or the some phoneme. Children from 1st, 3rd and 6th grade answered an oral task Pares si – Pares no (adapted from Goikoetxea ,2005), the purpose of this test was to determine children’s ability to say if a pair of words share the initial syllable, the onset or the initial phoneme or if the words share the ending syllable, the rime or the last phoneme.Results: Data analysis reflects an early sensibility to syllabic and phonemic information even before formal training in reading and reports an increasing sensibility to other phonological units (rime and onset).  Furthermore, the analysis shows a relevant role of the initial position in all units since kindergarten as well as a difficulty recognizing final phonemes and onsets. The differences in performance between units tend to diminish with reading acquisition and training.Discussion: The study shows the early awareness to phonological information in Spanish children and suggests the importance of unit type and position in the word. Finally rejects the unit size hypothesis according to Treiman and Zukowski 1991-1996.