Reading, rhyming and phoneme detection - Essay Example

?Was the purpose d clearly Outline the purpose of the study This research was conducted by using three different models: Reading leads to phoneme detection Rhyming leads to phoneme detection and reading Rhyming and phoneme detection have separate connections with the ability to read as well as between the relationship pertaining to phonological awareness and children’s literacy. Perhaps the most exciting finding arising from research on phonological awareness is that a child’s critical levels of phonological awareness can be developed through sensibly planned instructions. The development of such a teaching method is based on the fact that there is considerable influence on children's reading and spelling achievement. However, despite many promising research findings on the subject, several questions remain unanswered. The authors of this article have tried to highlight the several misconceptions relating to phonological awareness. Moreover, the debate continues on the relationship between phonological awareness and early reading. The objectives of this article are to (a) clarify some of the prominent findings from research on phonological awareness and reading and (b) apply those findings into applicable material for SLPs, and for teachers who work with children experiencing delays in early reading. To this end, the researchers have addressed the connection between how reading and rhyming lead to phoneme detection. They have also demonstrated how phoneme detection and rhyming have separate paths towards achieving literacy skills and how they are directly or indirectly dependent upon each other in relation to reading. 2.How does the study apply to communication disorders? Past studies in the context of relationship between phonological awareness (PA) and ability to read have revealed that children who have difficulties with (PA) are at risk of facing problems with literacy subsequently. Finding a link between rhyme and sound pattern and reading and spelling will give speech and language pathologists (SLP) and teachers with considerable support in helping children to progress in reading and spelling. The authors of this article have looked for ways to help clinicians in their assessment and therapy to determine the extent and types of instruction that are most effective for their clients. The outcome of this research study provides SLPs and teachers with guidelines for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness to children with or without learning disabilities who are encountering problems with early reading and/or spelling. Furthermore, by providing a description of available measures that indicate problems in phonological awareness and literacy, the study analyzes three models for assessing children's phonological and rhyming awareness and their subsequent reading skills. The study confirms the importance of early rhyming skills. Was relevant background literature reviewed? Describe the justification for the study. Reading research has gained a lot of attention in the last few years because critical stages of phonological awareness can be developed through carefully planned instructions. This research is justified in that there is a need to find the connections between a child’s early phonological and rhyming skills and his or her progress in reading and spelling. It is established that activities such as substituting different sounds for the first sound of a familiar song help in a child’s development of phonological awareness, which is a cognitive substrate to reading acquisition. It is known in this context that phonological awareness is not only cognitively related for analyzing words but also prepares children for later reading instructions in phonics and spelling. The authors of this article have discussed that the inability to process language by using phonological key knowledge poses as much of a barrier to learning early word reading as is posed by rhyming and alliteration. Moreover, the research outcomes reveal that weakness in phonological processing or weakness in rhyming or a combination of the two can equally be the cause of delays for reading development amongst children with and without disabilities. What does the study add to the literature? The outcome of the research supplements a remarkable addition to the evidence of connections between young children’s early phonological, rhyming and sound pattern recognition skills and their development of literacy. By defining phonological awareness and discussing historic and contemporary research findings regarding the connection to early reading, the researchers have addressed common misconceptions about phonological awareness and literacy. Is this the first study of its kind or is it an adaptation of previous studies? Many previous studies on the topic have proved that there is a definite relationship, direct or indirect, between children’s phonological and literacy development. However, this study took a different direction by structuring the research into three models. It has already been shown that there is a link between a child’s rhyming and alliteration abilities. Furthermore, it is known from previous research that children need to have an understanding of phonemes in order to understand the alphabet. Moreover, there is a need for the child to possess an awareness of rhyming and spelling in order to be able to progress in his or her literacy abilities. o Level 3 1.Describe the study design (is it correlational, experimental, survey research, etc.). This was a longitudinal research design, which reported the results of four sessions in which researchers analyzed children’s phonological, rhyme and alliteration skills as well as their ability to detect phonemes and be able to perform phoneme tapping. The children were between the ages of 4 years 7 month to 6 years seven month. The longitudinal study was conducted over a period of two years. How did you determine which design was used? The research paper has a heading that says: Procedure in which it was explained how the researchers collected the data and what kind of research design was used. Describe the sample (describe the participants, what are their characteristics) used? The participants comprised of 66 children but data could be collected only for 64 children. This was because one child left the country to live somewhere else and another child was not available to be tested on two tasks. The participants comprised of 33 girls and 31 boys and came from a native English-speaking background, except one child who did speak English at home but she also spoke Swedish as she had a Swedish mother. During the time when the first phonological task was given and documented the average age of the 64 children was 4 years and 7 month (range= 4 years 2 month to 5 years 5month). After the tests relative to data collection were given over the period of two years the children were tested for the last time when their average age was 4 years and 7 month. 2. Were any exclusionary criteria discussed? Yes, two children were excluded from the study in view of the fact that one participant could not be tested on two tasks at the same time and the other participant relocated to another country. Intervention was described in detail? 1.Provide a short description of the intervention or the procedures (What was the setting, what did the researchers do ) This longitudinal study reports the results of four sessions during the period when the children were between the ages of 4 and 6 years and were tested with the use of two sets of predictive measures and one set of outcome measures. The predictive measures tested the children at the age of 4 years and 7 month and 5 years and 7 month on rhyme and alliteration detection ability. At the ages of 5 years and 7 month and 5 years and 11 month the researchers tested the children on their phoneme detection. The goal for the first set of tests was to measure reading, spelling and arithmetic ability. For the first set of tests, the researchers conducted the test at the home of the participants. All later tests were conducted at the participants’ schools. The intervention for the first set of tests gave the children different versions of rhyme-oddity tasks. The children had two practice trials followed by ten experimental trials. In each trial the child could choose between three words with pictures and pick the two words that rhymed with them; such as “fish” and “dish”. The researchers used the same tools to measure the children’s sensitivity to sound repetition as well. The third session of the test incorporated a little more challenging tasks for the children because now they were an year older (5 years and 7 month), which demanded their attention to the position of sounds in words. During this intervention the researchers used three pictures that they showed to all the children and then asked them to point out which words began with the same sound. For example “code” ended with the same sound as “rote”. The participants were again given two practice trials followed by seven trials on which they did not receive any feedback. For the detection of phonemes, the researchers used two popular versions of phone deletion and phoneme tapping tests that only dealt with one word per trial. For the phoneme deletion at age 5 years and 11 month, the participants were required to talk to a puppet, repeating words that were spoken by the researcher. The children were provided with four practice words with the corresponding feedback before they were required to complete five consonant, vowel, consonant (CVC) words and five consonant, consonant, vowel, consonant words (CCVC). After they completed first sound phoneme and end sound phoneme deletion tasks the researchers attempted to work with words with blended consonants, but it was found that these tasks seemed to be very challenging for the children at this age. Only the results for the CVC scores were taken from each task. In getting responses of phoneme tapping the children, now age 5 years 11 month, were given a stick to tap out the number of sounds in a word that was spoken out. The participants were given the option to have several trials with examples to help them understand what was asked of them. The sounds held one, two or three phonemes. For reading, spelling and arithmetic the children age 6 years and 7 month were given four tests. The children were administered with the France Primary Reading Test, which is a multiple choice test that assesses the understanding of words and simple sentences and the Schonell Graded Word Reading Test plus extra words, which is a test that involves reading single words. Lastly, the children were also required to undergo the Schonell Spelling Test and the WISC-R Arithmetic test, which was administered to the children age 7 years and 2 month. 2. What were the variables? The extraneous variables were IQ, social class, memory, children’s ages, teir mothers’ educational levels, their vocabulary (BPVS) and their IQ RESULTS Results were reported in terms of statistical significance? o Yes o No 1. What were the results? Were they statistically significant (i.e., p Read More