Phonemic segmentation ability in young children : a comparison of tasks

The primary purpose of this study was to compare performance on phonemic awareness tasks while controlling for variables including the linguistic complexity of word and nonword stimuli, and administration and scoring procedures. Twenty-five kindergarten and 25 grade one students were administered five phonemic awareness tasks including four different phoneme segmentation tasks and a blending task, a vocabulary test, and real word identification and nonword decoding tasks. The relationship among the phonemic awareness tasks was analyzed through intercorrelations, factor analyses, and examination of relative degree of difficulty. There was a high degree of convergence among tasks, particularly those with similar task demands. The relationship between performance on phonemic awareness tasks and real word and nonword reading tasks was also compared. In most cases, students who were able to decode nonwords also performed well on the phonemic awareness tasks. A multiple regression revealed that the best predictor of nonword decoding was an oral phonemic segmentation task. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings were discussed.Education, Faculty ofEducational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department ofGraduat