The development of phonological awareness in preschool children

A short-term longitudinal study was carried out on a group of 67 preschool children. At three points in time over a 12-month period, the children were given tests measuring their syllable, rime, and phoneme awareness, speech and language skills, and letter knowledge. In general, children’s rime skills developed earlier than their phoneme skills. Structural equation models showed that articulatory skills and syllable and rime awareness predicted later phoneme awareness. Phonological awareness is one of the most important predictors of reading in normally developing children (Rack, Hulme, Snowl-ing & Wightman, 1994; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). In addition, children with dyslexia often show phonological processing diffi-culties, and training in phonological awareness can improve the efficacy of reading instruction (Bradley & Bryant, 1983; Hatcher