Structure of preschool phonological sensitivity: Overlapping sensitivity to rhyme, words, syllables, and phonemes

Phonological sensitivity is an important causal variable in reading acquisition; how-ever, there is controversy concerning its nature. One view holds that sensitivity to various linguistic units reflects independent abilities, whereas another holds sensitivity to these units reflects one ability. We examined relations among sensitivity to words, syllables, rhymes, and phonemes in 149 older preschool children (4- and 5-year-olds) and 109 younger preschool children (2- and 3-year-olds) who completed eight measures of phono-logical sensitivity and measures of print knowledge. Confirmatory factor analyses of all combinations of word, syllable, rhyme, and phoneme factors found that a one-factor model best explained the data from both groups of children (CFIs..98). Only variance common to all phonological sensitivity skills was related to print knowledge and rudi-mentary decoding. Findings support a developmental conceptualization of phonological sensitivity. © 2002 Elsevier Science (USA) Key Words: emergent literacy; reading skills; reading development; phonological aware-ness; phonology. Learning to read is a significant educational milestone in our literate society. Children who read early and well experience more print exposure and consequent growth in numerous knowledge domains (Cunningham & Stanovich, 1997