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From: Anne Murr <anne.murr@DRAKE.EDU>
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Subject: [NIFL-LD:3681] phonemic awareness
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There have been so many responses to the issue of phonemic awareness
that I am having difficulty processing it all! I 'd like to share
what I have learned as I have researched why persons fail to learn to
read and how to teach persons with low literacy skills. In the past
3 I have tutored many such persons - adults, and now children as
well. I also train volunteer tutors. What I have learned from
persons I tutor and from the research support each other.
=46irst, terminology:
1. phonemic awareness: the ability to perceive the sounds (phonemes)
in words, i.e., can hear 3 sounds in cat - /k/ /a/ /t/
2. phonological processing: can put 3 sounds together to make a
word, can exchange the first and last sounds in a word, i.e., /bag/
becomes /gab/. Can remove sounds from a word, i.e., /strip/ becomes
/trip/ or /rip/
3. phonics: connecting the sounds with letters, and the rules of how
words work, i.e., "i after e except after c".
4. dyslexia: the inability to do the above mental processes.
Language processing difficulties/differences. See the International
Dyslexia homepage, www.interdys.org.
I recommend 2 articles at www.ldonline.org. Click on "LD indepth"
and then on "Reading" - Find Reid Lyon's "Report on Learning
Disabilities Research" and Foorman's "Scientific Research in
Reading". Lots of other good stuff on that site.
The root cause of reading problems is that the brain processes
language differently, beginning with the sounds in words, then the
retrieval of those sounds, connecting meaning with combined sounds
(words) i.e., comprehension, speed of processing, i.e., fluency. How
these language processing differences are evidenced in different
individuals is a complex issue since the brain is such a complex
organ. That's why finding the best way to teach individuals is a
challenge!
There is abundant research which has identified that intensive,
direct, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonological
processing has a significant effect on at-risk readers (See Lovett et
al. 1994, and Bus et al. 1999). What is described is much of what
the Orton-Gillingham method and Lindamood Bell have been doing for
years.
In our Literacy Center, we are using the Wilson Reading System
(adapted OG) to teach phonological processing skills to both children
and adults. We are seeing persons make progress in learning to read.
=46or more information, see my Focus on Basics article.
OG develops skills instead of just exercising deficient skills. As
Maureen pointed out, intensity and duration of remedial work
increases processing speed and fluency. Foorman makes that point in
her ldonline article.
I.Q. does not affect the first 2 abilities - so discrepancy is not
part of the definition of dyslexia. Stanovich and Siegel (1994) and
Bell and Perfetti (1994) found that both children and adults with
above and below average IQ performed equally poorly on tests of
phonemic awareness and phonological processing, the 2 skills which
are a necessary prerequisite for learning to read. (Share, 1995)
There is research out there which describes adults with reading
problems. See Bruch, Bell & Perfetti, Byrne & Ledez, and Felton et
al. What is missing is research on the types of instruction for
adults.
Clif, you make a necessary point - that dyslexics may not read above
the 5th grade level - and little is known about how to help them
increase their skills.
You also believe that reading problems are caused by a perceptual
deficit and compare that to the old woman/young woman gestalt
picture. But Dyslexic children have been taught the Hebrew alphabet
and can identify those letters as accurately as normally-reading
children can. Other research also supports the view that dyslexia is
not a visual/perceptual problem.
I have not researched instruction with deaf persons. The little I
have read indicates that profoundly deaf persons rarely read above
the 3rd grade level. Helen Keller successfully learned to speak
because she had 3 1/2 years of hearing the sounds (phonemes) of
English before losing her hearing.
Accurately hearing the speech sounds of a 2nd language learners.
That's why the Bulgarian student was helped in learning English after
being directly taught English phonemes.
Clif, you question the validity of research in this country on
phonological basis of reading difficulties. Some of the earliest was
done in Denmark - a longitudinal study of 100's of K-3rd grade
children (Lundberg et al 1988). I have seen studies of German and
Greek speakers as well. They all point to the phonological
processing difficulties. I would like the reference for the
psychophysics MIT study you mention.
Research into the complex cognitive processes involved in reading
point to inefficiencies in processing the sounds of language. They
point to the ability to perceive sounds in words and how the sounds
connect with letters as the fundamental process in reading (Share,
1995). Even Chinese readers, who are reading pictorial (logographic)
script, hear the spoken sound of the word as they read (Perfetti &
Zhang, 1991). Reid Lyon compares the physical digestion process with
the cognitive reading process. Just as the digestive system must
break down proteins into the component amino acids before they can be
digested, so the brain must break down words into their component
phonemes before meaning can be processed. Since short-term memory
does not accurately perceive phonemes, this does affect accurate word
retrieval, rapid naming, making the connection between the picture of
a house and the naming of it.
The brain's inability to process phonological information is
neurologically based. Have you looked at the Paulesu et al (2001)
research with dyslexics in England, France and Italy? Brain scans
were done while both normal readers and dyslexics were reading. The
pattern of brain functioning for normal readers was the same across
all 3 languages and differed significantly from the brain pattern of
the dyslexic readers in all 3 languages (reduced activity in the left
hemisphere and increased activity in the middle temporal gyrus and
inferior and superior temporal gyri). The brains of persons with
reading problems do process language differently. (For more
information on brain structures and reading, see the Summer 2001
issue -Vol. 24/3- of Learning Disability Quarterly.)
Another interesting facet of this research was how Italian dylexics
were identified. Since Italian is a regular language (33 ways to
spell the 24 phonemes vs. over 1100 ways to spell the 42 English
phonemes), all the Italians could read and did not know they were
dyslexic. First, 1200 Italian college students were given tests of
spelling and marking accented syllables. Then, the 10% lowest
scorers were given a battery of tests measuring phonological skills:
accuracy of reading lists of real and non-words, exchanging the first
letters in pairs of words, auditory short-term memory for short and
long words (listening to and repeating the lists), digit naming
(reading aloud as fast as possible lists of 50 single digits).
Dyslexics in all 3 languages performed significantly more poorly than
normal readers on these tasks, which also supports the phonological
basis of reading problems. These are not "assumptions based on
observation" as you suppose, but data gathered in a carefully
controlled scientific study.
Reading problems, therefore, are not the result of developmental
delay. Risk factors can be identified as soon as children begin to
talk (Scarborough). The more that we can do to help young children
hear sounds in words - through reading rhymes, playing simple word
games, lots of read alouds, etc. - children with brain structures
which do not automatically process phonemes will have those
structures altered so that they will be ready to learn to read in 1st
grade.
Bell, L. & Perfetti, C. (1994). Reading skill: Some adult
comparisons. Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 244-255.
Bruck, M. (1998). Outcomes of adults with childhood histories of
dyslexia. In Hulme & Joshi, (Eds.) Reading and spelling, Maharch,
N.J.: L. Erlbaum.
Bruck, M. (1990). Word-recognition skills of adults with childhood
diagnoses of dyslexia. Developmental Psychology, 26, 439-454.
Bruck, M. (1992.) Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness
deficits. Developmental Psychology, 28, 874-886.
Bus, A.G. & van IJzendoorn. (1999) Phonological awareness and early
reading: A meta-analysis of experimental training studies. Journal
of Educationa.l Psychology, 91, 403-414.
Byrne, B. & Ledez, J. (1983). Phonological awareness in
reading-disabled adults. Australian Journal of Psychology, 35.
185-197.
=46elton, R.H., Naylor, C.E., Wood, F.B. (1990). Neuropsychological
profile of adult dyslexics. Brain and Language, 39, 485-497.
Lovett, M.W., Borden, S.L., DeLuca, T. Lacerenza, L., Benson, N.J., &
Brackstone, D. (1994) Treating the core deficits of developmental
dyslexia: Evidence of transfer of learning after phonologically- and
strategy-based reading training programs. Developmental Psychology,
30, 805-822.
Lundberg, I., Frost, J. Peterson, O. (1988). Effects of an
extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool
children. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263-283.
Murr, A. (2001). Theory to practice, practice to theory. Focus on
Basics. 24-27. National Center for the Study of Adult Literacy and
Learning.
Paulesu, E., D=E9monet, j.-F., Fazio, F., McCrory, E., Chanoine, V.,
Brunswick, N., Cappa, S.F., Cossu, G., Habib, M., Frith, C.D., Frith,
U. (2001). Dyslexia: Cultural diversity and bilogical unity,
Science, 291, 2165-2167.
Perfetti, C.A. & Zhang, S. (1991). Phonological processes in reading
Chinese characters. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning,
Memory, and Cognition. 17. 633-643.
Share, D.L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: sine
qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55, 151-218.
Stanovich, K. & Siegel, L. (1994). Phenotypic performance profile of
children with reading disabilities: A regression-based test of the
phonological-core variable-difference model. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 86, 24-53.
--
Anne Murr, Coordinator
Adult Literacy Center
School of Education
Drake University
3206 University Ave.
Des Moines, IA 50311
anne.murr@drake.edu
Tel 515-271-3982
Fax 515-271-4544=
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<html><head><style type=3D"text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { margin-top: 0 ; margin-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>phonemic awareness</title></head><body>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">There have been
so many responses to the issue of phonemic awareness that I am having
difficulty processing it all! I 'd like to
share what I have learned as I have researched why persons fail to
learn to read and how to teach persons with low literacy skills.
In the past 3 I have tutored many such persons - adults, and now
children as well. I also train volunteer tutors.
What I have learned from persons I tutor and from the research
support each other.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br>
=46irst, terminology:<br>
1. phonemic awareness: the ability to perceive the sounds
(phonemes) in words, i.e., can hear 3 sounds in cat - /k/ /a/
/t/</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">2. phonological
processing: can put 3 sounds together to make a word, can
exchange the first and last sounds in a word, i.e., /bag/ becomes
/gab/. Can remove sounds from a word, i.e., /strip/ becomes
/trip/ or /rip/</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">3. phonics:
connecting the sounds with letters, and the rules of how words work,
i.e., "i after e except after c".</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">4. dyslexia: =
;
the inability to do the above mental processes. Language
processing difficulties/differences. See the International
Dyslexia homepage,</font><font face=3D"Times" size=3D"+2"
color=3D"#000000"><u> www.interdys.org</u></font><font face=3D"Palatino"
size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">. </font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br>
I recommend 2 articles at</font><font face=3D"Times" size=3D"+2"
color=3D"#000000"><u> www.ldonline.org</u></font><font face=3D"Palatino"
size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">. Click on "LD indepth" and
then on "Reading" - Find Reid Lyon's "Report on
Learning Disabilities Research" and Foorman's "Scientific
Research in Reading". Lots of other good stuff on that
site.<br>
<br>
The root cause of reading problems is that the brain processes
language differently, beginning with the sounds in words, then the
retrieval of those sounds, connecting meaning with combined sounds
(words) i.e., comprehension, speed of processing, i.e., fluency.
How these language processing differences are evidenced in different
individuals is a complex issue since the brain is such a complex
organ. That's why finding the best way to teach individuals is
a challenge!</font><br>
<font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">There is abundant
research which has identified that intensive, direct, systematic
instruction in phonemic awareness and phonological processing has a
significant effect on at-risk readers (See Lovett et al. 1994, and Bus
et al. 1999). What is described is much of what the
Orton-Gillingham method and Lindamood Bell have been doing for
years.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br></font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000">In our Literacy
Center, we are using the Wilson Reading System (adapted OG) to teach
phonological processing skills to both children and adults. We
are seeing persons make progress in learning to read. For more
information, see my Focus on Basics article.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br>
OG develops skills instead of just exercising deficient skills.
As Maureen pointed out, intensity and duration of remedial work
increases processing speed and fluency. Foorman makes that point
in her ldonline article.<br>
<br>
I.Q. does not affect the first 2 abilities - so discrepancy is not
part of the definition of dyslexia. Stanovich and Siegel (1994) and
Bell and Perfetti (1994) found that both children and adults with
above and below average IQ performed equally poorly on tests of
phonemic awareness and phonological processing, the 2 skills which are
a necessary prerequisite for learning to read. (Share, 1995)<br>
<br>
There is research out there which describes adults with reading
problems. See Bruch, Bell & Perfetti, Byrne & Ledez, and
=46elton et al. What is missing is research on the types of
instruction for adults. <br>
<br>
Clif, you make a necessary point - that dyslexics may not read above
the 5th grade level - and little is known about how to help them
increase their skills.<br>
<br>
You also believe that reading problems are caused by a perceptual
deficit and compare that to the old woman/young woman gestalt
picture. But Dyslexic children have been taught the Hebrew
alphabet and can identify those letters as accurately as
normally-reading children can. Other research also supports the
view that dyslexia is<u> not</u> a visual/perceptual problem.<br>
<br>
I have not researched instruction with deaf persons. The little
I have read indicates that profoundly deaf persons rarely read above
the 3rd grade level. Helen Keller successfully learned to speak
because she had 3 1/2 years of hearing the sounds (phonemes) of
English before losing her hearing.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br>
Accurately hearing the speech sounds of a 2nd language learners.
That's why the Bulgarian student was helped in learning English
after being directly taught English phonemes.<br>
<br>
Clif, you question the validity of research in this country on
phonological basis of reading difficulties. Some of the earliest
was done in Denmark - a longitudinal study of 100's of K-3rd grade
children (Lundberg et al 1988). I have seen studies of German
and Greek speakers as well. They all point to the phonological
processing difficulties. I would like the reference for the
psychophysics MIT study you mention.<br>
<br>
Research into the complex cognitive processes involved in reading
point to inefficiencies in processing the sounds of language.
They point to the ability to perceive sounds in words and how the
sounds connect with letters as the fundamental process in reading
(Share, 1995). Even Chinese readers, who are reading pictorial
(logographic) script, hear the spoken sound of the word as they read
(Perfetti & Zhang, 1991). Reid Lyon compares the physical
digestion process with the cognitive reading process. Just as
the digestive system must break down proteins into the component amino
acids before they can be digested, so the brain must break down words
into their component phonemes before meaning can be processed.
Since short-term memory does not accurately perceive phonemes, this
does affect accurate word retrieval, rapid naming, making the
connection between the picture of a house and the naming of it.<br>
<br>
The brain's inability to process phonological information is
neurologically based. Have you looked at the Paulesu et al
(2001) research with dyslexics in England, France and Italy?
Brain scans were done while both normal readers and dyslexics were
reading. The pattern of brain functioning for normal readers was
the same across all 3 languages and differed significantly from the
brain pattern of the dyslexic readers in all 3 languages (reduced
activity in the left hemisphere and increased activity in the middle
temporal gyrus and inferior and superior temporal gyri). The
brains of persons with reading problems do process language
differently. (For more information on brain structures and
reading, see the Summer 2001 issue -Vol. 24/3- of<u> Learning
Disability Quarterly</u>.)<br>
<br>
Another interesting facet of this research was how Italian dylexics
were identified. Since Italian is a regular language (33 ways to
spell the 24 phonemes vs. over 1100 ways to spell the 42 English
phonemes), all the Italians could read and did not know they were
dyslexic. First, 1200 Italian college students were given tests
of spelling and marking accented syllables. Then, the 10% lowest
scorers were given a battery of tests measuring phonological skills:
accuracy of reading lists of real and non-words, exchanging the first
letters in pairs of words, auditory short-term memory for short and
long words (listening to and repeating the lists), digit naming
(reading aloud as fast as possible lists of 50 single digits).
Dyslexics in all 3 languages performed significantly more poorly than
normal readers on these tasks, which also supports the phonological
basis of reading problems. These are not "assumptions based
on observation" as you suppose, but data gathered in a carefully
controlled scientific study.<br>
<br>
Reading problems, therefore, are not the result of developmental
delay. Risk factors can be identified as soon as children begin
to talk (Scarborough). The more that we can do to help young
children hear sounds in words - through reading rhymes, playing
simple word games, lots of read alouds, etc. - children with brain
structures which do not automatically process phonemes will have those
structures altered so that they will be ready to learn to read in 1st
grade.<br>
<br>
<br>
Bell, L. & Perfetti, C. (1994). Reading skill: Some
adult comparisons. <u> Journal of Educational Psychology, 86</u>,
244-255.<br>
<br>
Bruck, M. (1998). Outcomes of adults with childhood histories of
dyslexia. In Hulme & Joshi, (Eds.)<u> Reading and
spelling</u><i>,</i> Maharch, N.J.: L. Erlbaum.<br>
<br>
Bruck, M. (1990). Word-recognition skills of adults with childhood
diagnoses of dyslexia. <u> Developmental Psychology,
26</u><i>,</i> 439-454.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Palatino" size=3D"+2" color=3D"#000000"><br>
Bruck, M. (1992.) Persistence of dyslexics' phonological awareness
deficits.<u> Developmental Psychology, 28</u><i>,</i>
874-886.<br>
<br>
Bus, A.G. & van IJzendoorn. (1999) Phonological awareness
and early reading: A meta-analysis of experimental training
studies. <u> Journal of Educationa.l Psychology, 91</u>,
403-414.<br>
<br>
Byrne, B. & Ledez, J. (1983). Phonological awareness
in reading-disabled adults. <u> Australian Journal of
Psychology, 35</u>. 185-197.<br>
<br>
=46elton, R.H., Naylor, C.E., Wood, F.B. (1990).
Neuropsychological profile of adult dyslexics. <u> Brain and
Language, 39</u>, 485-497.<br>
<br>
Lovett, M.W., Borden, S.L., DeLuca, T. Lacerenza, L., Benson, N.J., &
Brackstone, D. (1994) Treating the core deficits of
developmental dyslexia: Evidence of transfer of learning after
phonologically- and strategy-based reading training programs. <u>
Developmental Psychology, 30</u>, 805-822.<br>
<br>
Lundberg, I., Frost, J. Peterson, O. (1988). Effects of an
extensive program for stimulating phonological awareness in preschool
children.<u> Reading Research Quarterly, 23</u>, 263-283.<br>
<br>
Murr, A. (2001). Theory to practice, practice to
theory. <u> Focus on Basics</u>. 24-27. National
Center for the Study of Adult Literacy and Learning.<br>
<br>
Paulesu, E., D=E9monet, j.-F., Fazio, F., McCrory, E., Chanoine, V.,
Brunswick, N., Cappa, S.F., Cossu, G., Habib, M., Frith, C.D., Frith,
U. (2001). Dyslexia: Cultural diversity and
bilogical unity,<u> Science, 291</u>, 2165-2167.<br>
<br>
Perfetti, C.A. & Zhang, S. (1991). Phonological processes in
reading Chinese characters. <u> Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 17</u>.
633-643.<br>
<br>
Share, D.L. (1995). Phonological recoding and
self-teaching: <i> sine qua non</i> of reading
acquisition. <u> Cognition, 55</u>, 151-218.<br>
<br>
Stanovich, K. & Siegel, L. (1994). Phenotypic performance
profile of children with reading disabilities: A
regression-based test of the phonological-core variable-difference
model. <u> Journal of Educational Psychology, 86,</u>
24-53.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">-- <br>
Anne Murr, Coordinator</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">Adult Literacy
Center</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">School of
Education</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">Drake
University</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">3206 University
Ave.</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000">Des Moines, IA
50311</font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1"
color=3D"#0000FF"><u>anne.murr@drake.edu</u></font><font face=3D"Arial"
size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000"></font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000"> Tel
515-271-3982 </font></div>
<div><font face=3D"Arial" size=3D"+1" color=3D"#000000"> Fax
515-271-4544</font><font color=3D"#000000"></font></div>
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