Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 1983,24, 35-44

Can phonemic awareness be trained in

kindergarten?

AKE OLOFSSON University of Umed, Sweden

INGVAR LUNDBERG

Olofsson,A. & Lundberg, 1.: Can phonemic awareness be trained in kindergarten?Scandi-

navian Journal of Psychology, 1983,24, 35-44.
The effect of a training program designed to develop phonemic awareness skills in kinder-
garten was assessed in a study involving three experimental groups and two control groups.
The degree of structure imposed upon the program was varied in the experimental groups.
One control group was trained in non-verbal auditory discrimination, and the second
control group followed the ordinary preschool program during the 6 8 week observational
period. A clear improvement in the ability to segment and blend three-phoneme words
was observed in the highly structured training cohdition, especially among the children
with poor pre-test performance, while no clear changes from pre- to post-test were found
in the other groups. It was concluded that phonemic awareness can be developed in pre-
readers outside the context of formal reading instruction.
Ake Olofsson, Department of Psychology, University of Umed, Rddhusespbnaden 2,
S-90247 Umed, Sweden.

Most studies of child language have focussed on
the development of the primary linguistic abilities
9f speaking and listening. In the last decade, how-
ever, the child’s sensitivity to the formal properties
of language has attracted increasing attention, es-
pecially among reading researchers (reviews are
given by Ehri, 1979; Golinkoff, 1978; Lundberg,
1978). Mattingly (1972) seemed to be the first to
point out linguistic awareness as a powerful source
of individual differences as opposed to linguistic
ability. The ability to approach language in a situa-
tionally detached and conscious, self-reflective way
appears to be of critical importance for acquir-
ing reading and writing skills.
Around the age of seven most children show
various signs of an increasing linguistic awareness
expressed at the phonological, morphophonemic,
lexical, and syntactic-semantic levels. One of the
many aspects of linguistic awareness is that a sen-
tence, previously perceived as a gestalt including
its extra-linguistic context, now can be segmented
into phrases, words, syllables, and phonemes, and
that these linguistic units can be synthesized to
create syllables, words, phrases, and sentences.
This ability is of obvious importance for reading
acquisition. Because of the close grapheme-sound
relation our alphabetic script may require beginning
readers to pay special attention to phonemic struc-
ture. However, the phonemic units seem to be
particularly difficult to handle for many beginners.
The difficulty to access phonemes is related to the
fact that “phonemes are not represented in the
acoustic signal in discrete segments, but rather
are merged-‘encoded‘-into larger units of ap-
proximately syllabic size” (Liberman et al., 1977).
Thus, getting access to these coarticulated or en-
coded elements is more a matter of abstraction and
reflection than perceptual discrimination.
Mattingly (1979) argues that phonemic blending
and segmentation may be better characterized
simply as access to linguistic elements rather than
conscious awareness of linguistic activity. While
recognizing the lack of conceptual clarity we stick
to the term phonemic awareness in the present
report for reasons of current convention and to
emphasize the metalinguistic nature of the phoneme
processing.
A more urgent question than the terminological

ScandinnuinnJournal of Psychology, 24
36 A . Olofsson und I . Lundberg
is to what extent and in what ways the ability to
handle phonemes can be stimulated by training
at the preschool level. Is it possible to prevent
reading difficulties in school by an early stimulation
program?
Impressive correlations have been reported be-
tween reading ability and the ability to isolate and
handle phonemes (Lewkowicz, 1980; Lundberg,
1981; Zifcak, 1981). However, it is not clear wheth-
er phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for read-
ing acquisition or develops as a result of reading
instruction. As long as only correlational data are
available, the causal direction of the relationship
remains in principle obscure. An attempt to clarify
the issue by applying path analysis on longitudinal
data was presented by Lundberg, Olofsson &Wall
(1980). That phonemic awareness is more than
a mere indication of or a consequence of learning
to read is suggested in several recent studies where
it is demonstrated that the skill can be taught to
prereaders and that it may contribute to success
in beginning reading (Lewkowicz & Low, 1979;
Marsch & Mineo, 1977; Williams, 1980). Though
these results may seem rather encouraging, more
direct and clear evidence from carefully designed
experimental studies is needed. If lack of phonemic
awareness skill is demonstrated to be causally
related to reading and spelling difficulties and if
the skill can be taught at preschool level then the
instructional implications should be serious!y con-
sidered.
The present study is part of a long-term project
on phonemic awareness and reading. Here we ad-
dress the more limited question if phonemic aware-
ness can be taught at all to prereaders. A system-
atic training program is described, and its effects
on preschool children is evaluated in an experi-
mental setting. The long-term effects on reading
and spelling progress in school will be reported
in a later study.
Some considerationsf o r program design
Lewkowicz (1980) has recently evaluated five
American programs designed to promote the devel-
opment of phonemic awareness skills. Among the
great variety of training tasks that could be found
in these programs she singled out sound blending
(synthesis of phonemes into words) and oral phone-
mic segmentation as those most closely associated
with reading. The multivariate analyses of Lund-
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24
berg, Olofsson & Wall (1980) also support this
conclusion.
The programs also included several less de-
manding tasks such as analysis/synthesis of syl-
lables or morphemes and recognition of rhyme.
Rhyming seems to be one of the earliest expres-
sions of the child‘s metalinguistic development.
Recognizing a rhyme is a rather intuitive act which
does not seem to require more explicit awareness of
the formal aspects of language. Lewkowicz (1980)
comes to the conclusion that it may be advisable
to start teaching rhyme recognition before seg-
mentation and blending tasks are introduced, al-
though it is still somewhat unclear whether it should
be considered a prerequisite for those skills. Al-
though the central concern is phonemic awareness
it seems reasonable to start with the more acces-
sible aspects of linguistic forms. Thus, the child
first learns to redirect attention from content or
meaning to form and then eventually detects move
abstract dimensions of form.
Among the more complex tasks that have been
used the following can be mentioned: counting
the number of phonemes in a word (Zifcak, 1981),
deletion of a phoneme in a word (Bruce, 1964),
specifying which phoneme has been deleted (Lund-
berg, 1981), and phoneme substitution (Elkonin,
1973). In addition to phonemic awareness these
tasks seem to require various degrees of memo-
ry and attention capacity. In young children this
capacity is easily overloaded and task failure is
difficult to interpret. Thus, we found it advisable to
avoid tasks of this complex nature in our program.
Among the tasks which require phoneme analysis
isolating the initial phoneme of a word seems to
be the easiest one-“a clearly useful task” in Lew-
kowicz’s wording. It is necessary for the child to
master this task as a first step in phonemic seg-
mentation. Several interesting and attractive task
varieties can also be designed with initial phoneme
analysis.
Testing
The training program was evaluated with reference
to the results on tests given before and after the
training period. The pre- and post-tests assessed
the children’s ability to analyze and synthesize
three-phoneme words. The tests were designed
to yield the purest possible measures of phonemic
skills where the influence of short-term memory

attentional strategies or cognitive style was kept
t o a minimum. Gross measures of nonspecific
processes such as intelligence or memory will give
normal distributions of test results because a large
number of subskills ar e tapped and pooled in a
haphazard way. In contrast, the operation o f single
skills which underlie performance on the test will
yield a bimodal distribution. These skills ar e either
possessed o r not possessed by the children. Cal-
fee (1977) is one of the few researchers who h as
bothered t o inspect the distributions of scores any
closer. He found that highly selective tests (i.e.
phonemic segmentation) yielded bimodal distribu-
tions.
If, on the other hand, the main problems of ab-
stracting the invariant features of the acoustic signal
(assessing the phonemes) are perceptual rather than
conceptual a more normal distribution should be
expected. In such a case the difficulty of each item
of the test will be affected by the specific character
of each individual phoneme-the extent to which
it is coarticulated (stopcontinuant), its position
in the word (initial, medial, final) etc.
To the extent w e will find bimodal distributions
of our test data the interpretation will be easy,
while we a t the same time have t o abandon classi-
cal statistical analyses based on the normality
assumption.
In the design of the tests special care has also
been taken t o obtain a sensitive indicator of change
in phonemic abilities with special regard to the
disabled children. After all, the ultimate concern
is the development of the slow child and w e should
not be too worried about ceiling effects for the
bright. This focus will be partly in conflict with
traditional psychometric design principles. How-
ever, it is relevant here t o recognize the distinc-
tion between psychometric vs. edumetric validity
discussed by Carver (1974).
METHOD
General design
For a period of 6-8 weeks three experimental groups
of children in kindergarten took part in a more or less
structured program for developing phonemic awareness.
During the corresponding period one control group was
run through a program emphazising non-verbal sound
discrimination and a second control group just followed
the regular preschool plan. There were no reasons to
expect variation among the teachers involved as far as
training and experience was concerned.
Phonemic awareness 37
The treatment of the experimental groups varied along
a dimension of structure. Group 1 had a highly structured
program with well specified tasks arranged in a strict
sequence of half-hour sessions (3-4 times per week).
Group 2 also had a well structured program but the
teacher was not very much supervised and was mainly
guided by the written instructions. The total amount of
time spent on the tasks turned out to be somewhat less
for this group. The third experimental group followed
a more spontaneous, non-scheduled variety of the pro-
gram. When the teacher found it convenient a task was
introduced more or less “on the fly” in the normal play
activities that occupy most of the curriculum in Swedish
kindergarten. Thus, the order between different tasks,
as well as the selection of particular phonemes was a
more haphazardous affair under this condition. A rea-
sonable expectation was now that the effect of the pro-
gram was higher the more structure that was imposed
upon it.
Control group 1 worked with a program formally fairly
equivalent to the experimental program. It consisted of
a number of non-verbal tasks, such as sound localization,
exercises involving discrimination of various sources of
sounds, sound signals as symbolic cues for actions like
running, sitting down etc., the intended objective being
to stimulate the development of auditory perception
(Cox & Pearson, 1974). The general format, the sequenc-
ing of various tasks, the amount of time spent on the
tasks, group activities etc. were all vely similar to the
experimental program. The teachers of this group were
also convinced that sensory training had an important
impact on the children’s general mental development.
Control group 2 provided base line data. During the
critical period they followed a normal Swedish preschool
program, which means a fairly low degree of structure
and a pronounced emphasis on social and esthetic devel-
opment in playful settings.
Immediately before and after the training period in-
dividual tests of phonemic analysis and synthesis were
administered to all children in the groups. As a final
step in the investigation a reading test was given. Swedish
children start school comparatively late (around the
age of seven). The investigation took place in ApriLMay
and most children were expected to start school by the
end of August. Despite their advanced age most of the
children were presumably quite unfamiliar with written
language. Only a small minority could be expected to
show any reading ability, hopefully evenly distributed
among the groups. As a check a short screening test
for reading was given to all subjects.
In a field experiment like the present one it is, for
practical reasons, impossible to randomize individuals on
the different treatment and control groups. Of course,
this limits the conclusions that can be drawn and forces
us to be careful in interpreting our data.
Subjects
The average age of the children was 6 years 11 months
(SD= 3.5 months) with no significant differences among
the groups. All groups, except experiment group 2, were
selected (quite randomly) from the preschool system
of the city of UmeA (8OOOO inh.). Experiment group 2
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24
38 A. Olofsson and I . Lundberg
was recruited from a smaller community 30 km from the
city. No socio-economic bias could be detected in any
group or between the groups, most children coming
from lower middle class homes. As far as equipment,
personnel, and general pedagogical standard were con-
cerned the schools from which the different groups were
recruited were fairly equivalent.
The training program
The program consisted of a number of games or tasks
playfully introduced as group activities and designed
according to the general principles discussed above. It
was carefully divided into practice sessions, each lasting
15-30 minutes, and distributed over a period of 6 8 weeks.
The progress of the program was slow to ensure that
all children, even those with a minimum of metalinguistic
talent, could manage the games with a feeling of success.
The main task or game types are listed below in the
same order as they were introduced in the training period:
1. Recognition of rhymes, rhyming, nonsense verses.
2. Segmentation of words into syllables.
3. Finding the initial phonemes of words. Metalinguistic
discussions of speech sounds and words.
4. Studying the effect of adding or deleting initial pho-
nemes.
5. Segmentating words into phonemes. Two-phoneme
words.
6. Segmentating words into phonemes. Three-phoneme
words.
7. Synthesizing phonemes into words (blending).
For each of these steps several very concretely de-
signed games were suggested with the underlying princip-
les carefully explained to the teachers.
To convey an idea of the substantial content of the
program a few illustrative examples of games from step
3-7 will be briefly presented.
In one of the games of step 3 the children are sitting
in a circle with a collection of animal pictures in the
centre. One of the children draws a picture and tells the
others what it depicts. All children repeat the name of
the animal in chorus. They are instructed to listen care-
fully and try to identify the initial sound. All pictures
with the same initial phoneme are then collected in a
separate pile.
In the first sessions only some vowels and continuants
are used as target phonemes (I, 0,A, R,L, S) (cf. March &
Mineo, 1977; Skjelfjord, 1976; Zhurova, 1964). The teach-
ers are also instructed to describe place and manner
of articulation of the sounds (cf. Williams, 1980; Bachke &
Gunnestad, 1981). Stop consonants appear later in the
training. Here an iterating technique is recommended,
i.e. “ p p p p p i g ” is given when the task is to identify the
initial phoneme of “pig”. To avoid confusions between
voice-less and voicing stop consonants it was recom-
mended to keep them temporally well separated in the
training sequence.
A typical game of step 4 was the “spider web”. The
teacher keeps a ball of yam and says a sound (phoneme)
followed by a word (about ‘12 sec intewal), for example
r-ice. When the two parts are blended a new word is
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24
created. Slhe throws the ball to one of the children but
keeps the end of the yarn. The child repeats the sound
and the word and blends them into the new word. If the
child fails, the teacher gives assistance until the new
word appears. Then the teacher produces another com-
bination and the ball of yarn is transferred to a second
child. Eventually a web of yam is formed among all
children. Now the web is raised over the heads of every-
body and all sing a song about the spider. Finally the
yam is collected and each child repeats his sound and
words as the yarn returns to the ball.
In one of the games of step 5 and 6 the children trans-
port words on wagons (wooden blocks). Each child gets
a two- or three-phoneme word and has to divide the
word into phonemic segments which are loaded on the
blocks.
Step 7 includes among others a fairy tale about a troll
with a peculiar manner of speaking. The troll wants to
communicate with a child but can only produce one
phoneme at a time. Now the child must figure out what
the troll is trying to say. (For example, the teacher says
“S-OU-p”.)
Tests
The pre- and post-tests were developed from the most
powerful tasks used by Lundberg, Olofsson & Wall (1983,
there called SYNPHONC and ANPHONC.
Synthesis. The child was presented with three pho-
nemes which were concretely represented by pegs that
could be inserted into three holes in a wooden board.
This was a way of avoiding memory problems and thus
making it possible to study the blending process more
purely. When the child was able to recall the phonemes
perfectly and properly point to the inserted pegs from
left to right he was requested to figure out, with guidance
from the phonemes, the content of a picture turned upside
down. A successful blending of the phonemes yields
the correct word, which was confirmed by turning the
picture up. For those children who did not succeed di-
rectly the task was facilitated by presenting them with
a syllable and the final phoneme. If this did not suffice
further guidance was provided, so in the end all children
somehow experienced success in identifying the hidden
figure. At the pre-test occasion 8 items were used of
which 5 were CVC, 1 VCV, and 2 VCC. Each success-
fully completed 3 phoneme synthesis was scored one
point.
The post-test was equivalent in procedure and item
composition. But now, phonemes with more complex
graphemic representation were included in 5 of the 8
items (for example lnglandlschl). This does not neces-
sarily mean an increase in difficulty (it is after all a pure
auditory and oral task and most of the children are virtual-
ly non-readers) but the probability that the teachers,
strongly biased by their orthographic experience, had
used these phonemes in the training period was con-
siderably reduced. The post-test also included more stop
consonants.
Analysis. After the eight items of the synthesis test
the subjects and experimenter “changed roles”. Now,
the child had the secret picture available and was re-
quired to analyse the corresponding word into three
 Phonemic awareness 39

Table 1. Mean performance scores of preschool groups with and without training in phonemic awareness
Phonemic test
Reading
Synthesis Analysis Total test
Groups N na Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Post

Exp 1 19 8/13 4.79 6.47 5.58 6.42 10.37 12.89 0.79

Exp 2 28 14/15 5.93 6.18 5.57 6.25 11.50 12.43 1.43
Exp 3 14 6/9 4.64 4.43 4.14 4.29 8.78 8.72 1.29
Contr 1 23 12/12 5.09 5.48 4.22 4.78 9.31 10.26 0.57
Contr 2 11 913 6.83 6.64 6.36 5.82 13.18 12.45 1.18

Number of boys/number of girls.

phonemic segments and present them to the Experimenter
on the peg-board. From these cues he was supposed
to figure out what the child had on his picture. This test
also consisted of 8 items: 4 CVC, 2 VCC, 1 VCV, and
1 VVC. The post-test was changed according to the same
principles as in the synthesis case. None of the post-
test items were included in the training program. The
segmentation attempts were tape recorded.
In the synthesis tests as well as in the analysis tests
some children tried to use letter names instead of sounds.
In those cases it was explicitly pointed out that this
should be avoided and the Experimenter explained the
difference between letter names and speech sounds.
The scoring was liberal, however, and minor substitu-
tions (probably perceptually rather than conceptually
determined) wire tolerated, such as confusion of voiced
and voice-less consonants. This principle was in accord
with Wallach et al. (1977) and March & Mineo (1977)
who found that the problems are not to be localized on
the perceptual level (training in allophonic variations
had no effect on phonemic competence).
The reliability of the two tests proved to be high in
both versions (KR-200.90) Fit of the latent-trait-model of
Rasch was also found, so it could be concluded that the
items formed a homogeneous group.
The total testing time for pre- and post-test, respec-
tively amounted to about 12 minutes on the average with
lower and upper extremes of 3 and 24 minutes respec-
tively.
Reading tests
Although no child had been subjected to any formal
reading instruction it was expected that a few of them
had gained some reading ability with the help of parents
or older siblings or in some other informal ways. The
reading ability was quickly assessed with the same test
as was used by Lundberg, Olofsson & Wall (1980). The
test consists of four, hierarchically arranged rows with
increasing level of difficulty. The child starts with the
first row and then proceeds until s/he fails; first very
simple CVC-words, then a three-word-sentence, a longer
sentence with a subordinate clause, and finally a syntac-
tically still more complex sentence including three long
and complex words.
Children with no sign of reading ability obtained 0
point, those who managed to read the first row, but not
more, 1 point etc. A few children indeed managed to
read the last row fluently and thus obtained 4 points.
The results of the test in kindergarten correlates between
0.55 and 0.66 with reading and spelling tests and with
teachers’ ratings in the first school years. The relatively
strong relation still holds in grade 3 where correlations
of 0.59-0.62 have been obtained (Olofsson & Lundberg,
in preparation).
RESULTS
In Table 1 the main results of the investigation
are summarized. The overall effect of the treat-
ment is expressed as the difference between the
values in the “total” columns. Only experiment
group 1 shows a clear improvement from pre- to
post-test with an average gain of 2.52 points. In
the base-line condition of control group 2 even
a slight decrease in the test scores can be observed.
The distributions of the test scores deviates
markedly from normality as can be seen in Fig. 1.
The bimodality as well as the nonrandom assign-
ment of subjects t o the different groups make any
attempt t o test the significance of the difference
between pre- and post-test rather futile.
The fact that the scores a re distributed bimodally
suggests, in line with the reasoning above, that
the ability t o synthesize o r segment phonemes is
a single skill rather than a composite of skills.
In Fig. 2’the distribution of scores on the reading
test is presented. About one fifth of the children
seems to have some reading ability (score 2-4),
while more than half of them cannot read a t all.
From a comparison of Figs. 1 and 2 it appears that
several of the nonreading children show practically
complete ability t o analyze and synthesize pho-
nemes (the non-readers outnumber the children
with low pre- and post-test scores). This can be
interpreted as support for the notion that phonemic

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24

40 A . Olofsson and I . Lundberg

1
f

,il
6

2 6
0 2 4 6 8 6
NUMER OF CORRECT RESPONSES i OF CORRECT RESPONS

Fig. I . Distributions of test

scores. (a) he-test, 3-pho-
neme synthesis, ( b ) he-test,
analysis of 3-phoneme
words, ( c ) post-test, 3-pho-
neme synthesis, ( d )post-
test, analysis of 3-phoneme
words.
0 2 L 6 8 0 2 L 6 8
NUMBER OF CORRECT RESPONSES NUMBER OF CORRECT RESPONSES

skills are, or at least can be, developed before
reading acquisition.
The relationships between pre- and post-test
scores for the different groups are illustrated in
Fig. 3. The post-test score for each individual is
plotted against the corresponding pre-test score.
Improved scores are displayed as points above the
line x = y . Marked deviations from this line can
be seen in same cases from the experimental groups.
The high reliability of the testing is also convinc-

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24

 Phonemic awareness 41

f marked overrepresentation of boys in a carefully

defined dyslexic group was reported by Lundberg &
40 Olofsson (1981).
Age differences. Within the highly restricted
range of ages in the present study no correlation
35
between age and test performance could be ob-
served. Children with no items correct as well as
30 children with perfect performance were found in
each birth month of the year when the children
were born (1974).
25

Some informal observations on the

20 practical use of the program
Most exercises or games seem to have been quite
15 easy to administer according to tape recorded
observations and interviews with the participating
teachers. Rhyming and syllable segmentation have
10
been especially easy tasks for most children. As
was expected, the crucial difficulty for some chil-
5 dren was to discover and isolate the phoneme,
even in the initial position of words. More sur-
prising was the difficulty for some teachers to con-
0 2 L ceptually handle the phoneme as distinct from the
READING ABILITY letter name. However, some less orthographically
Fig. 2. Distribution of test scores. Reading test. biased children readily discovered the distinction
and extended the insight into playful games with
names with amusing consequences, such as “Tee-
ingly illustrated, especially for the control groups om” instead of “Tom” and the like.
where the correspondence between pre- and post- Among the more advanced children additions and
test scores is very close. A comparison of the two deletions of initial phonemes were especially ap-
types of tasks-analysis and synthesis-might also preciated games. In one of the groups it occurred
elucidate the reliability issue. The two types can spontaneously that the children tried to address
be regarded as two different versions of the same each other for the rest of the day without using
underlying test-a finding closely related to the the initial phonemes in their names. Later they
concept of edumetric reliability (Carver, 1974). extended the principle into a kind of home-con-
The average score differences between analysis structed secret language.
and synthesis are 1.04 and 0.94 for pre- and post- Children who could not handle phonemes some-
test, respectively. times manifested their semantic imprisonment.
Sex differences. Sex differences on language In one case, for example, the Swedish word “sang”
tasks are often reported (see e.g. Ounsted & Taylor,
1972). As can be seen in Table 2 the superiority
of girls over boys was not very marked in this Table 2. Mean number of correct 3-phoneme syn-
thesis and 3-phoneme analysis for boys and girls
study. However, at each one of the four measure-
before and after the training period
ment points the boys show higher variability as
well as slightly lower means than the girls. Among Synthesis Analysis
the children with low scores (less than half of the
Pre Post Pre Post
items correct) we find at pre-test 23 boys and only
13 girls. At post-test the corresponding finding is Boys Mean 5.37 5.84 4.86 5.19
17 boys and 11 girls. A more pronounced sex dif- SD 3.02 2.72 3.27 3.19
ference on lower achievement levels has also been Girls Mean 6.02 6.12 5.71 6.29
SD 2.85 2.65 2.94 2.75
reported by Lundberg (1982) among others. A

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24

42 A. Olofsson and I . Lundberg

1L -

12 -
W

2 L 6 8 10 12 lI, 16 2 L 6 8 10 12 1L 16
PRE TEST SCORE PRE TEST SCORE

2 L 6 8 10 12 16 16
PRE TEST SCORE

Fig. 3. Total post-test score (synthesis + analysis) plotted

against total pre-test score. Group ( a ) structured training
in phonemic awareness, ( 6 )structured but less supervised
training in phonemic awareness, ( c ) spontaneous training
in phonemic awareness, ( d ) nonverbal auditory percep-
tion training, ( e ) ordinary preschool program. Nore. If
two or more cases fall into the same position, the actual
number of cases is printed.
2 L 6 8 10 12 1L 1E
PRE TEST SCORE

Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 24


(bed) was presented as I s : / + ang. The initial ex-
tended fricative was interpreted as the imperative
sign for silence followed by the word “ang” (mead-
ow)-i.e. the quite poetic expression “silent mead-
ow”. The general impression was that regardless
of ability level the children enjoyed the exercises
and games very much and were encouraged to
approach their language in a playful and creative
way that was new to most of them.
DISCUSSION
The present study provides some additional evi-
dence that phonemic awareness skills can be
trained at the preschool level and outside the con-
text of reading instruction. The experimental design
of the study permitted an evaluation of the specific
effect of phonemic awareness training as com-
pared to more general effects of a stimulation pro-
gram. The importance of program structure was
also assessed in the comparisons between the
different experimental groups. Most of the positive
effects have been observed in children with low
ability who also were the main concern of the study.
The testing procedure with its pronounced ceiling
effects failed to demonstrate any development of
phonemic skills in a majority of the more able
children. However, many of these children dis-
played creativity and initiated constructive and
playful activities far beyond the scope of the train-
ing program suggesting that they profited from the
training program anyhow. Evaluating the effect of
a program for children vastly diffferent on the
ability continuum is of course difficult. In fact,
it requires that the same measuring stick is used
regardless of the ability of the children. Promising
attempts to handle this problem have been reported
by Rop (1977; ref. in Fischer, 1977). She found
that preschool program designed to support chil-
dren with low abilities improved performance of
all children, regardless of initial level. However,
the relative positions of the low achievers were
maintained.
The bimodal distributions of test scores were
interpreted as reflections of an underlying single
skill dimension. The bimodality also suggests that
relatively few children are in a transitory stage
where they partly manage to handle the tasks of
phonemic analysis and synthesis. However, bi-
modal distributions might also reflect high-dis-
criminating tests and a normally distributed latent
Phonemic awareness 43
variable with large variance (Lord, 1953). Since we
here deliberately designed tests sensitive to changes
in the low-achieving children, ceiling effects were
obtained which make the interpretation of distri-
butional forms rather difficult. Perhaps testing of
younger children might clarify the issue.
If the stage interpretation is correct, the transi-
tion from phonemic incompetence to mastery
seems to develop quite rapidly or even as a sudden
insight. Many signs of such insights were observed
during the training sessions. The new insight might
be a consequence as well as a stimulation of more
general metalinguistic discoveries within the con-
text of the “mental revolution” that is assumed
to take place between the age of 6 and 8. For the
child the phoneme is a new and abstract category
which requires advanced cognitive operations to
handle. We now know that the development of
thinking is highly dependent on the specific material
the child is working with (e.g. Donaldson, 1978;
Papert, 1980). Phonemes might be especially power-
ful devices for developing conscious reflection and
exploratory curiosity. If this is the case, phonemic
training has a deeper motivation than preparing
the child for reading instruction in school.
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