Ball, Eileen W. & Blachman, Benita A. (1991). Does phoneme awareness training in kindergarten make a difference in early word recognition and developmental spelling? Reading Research Quarterly, 26, 49-66.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness that phonemic segmentation training and instruction in letter names and sounds would have on kindergarten children's reading and spelling skills.

One hundred and fifty-one kindergarten students were screened for this study. The students were enrolled in six kindergarten classrooms from three public schools in Syracuse, NY. All students were pretested with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised (PPVT-R) and the Word Identification Subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (Woodcock). Students were eliminated from the study based on the following criteria:

· PPVT-R scores that were 1.5 standard deviations below the mean

· Woodcock Word Identification subtest scores greater than 3

· Students reported to be readers by their classroom teachers

Of the children who did not meet the criteria, thirty (30) were randomly selected from each of the three schools to participate in the study. The mean age of these students was 5.71 years. Eighty-nine (89) of the ninety (90) students completed the study.

In addition to PPVT-T and the Woodcock pretests, students were also administered a test of phoneme segmentation, and a test of letter name and letter sound knowledge. Students from each classroom were first grouped by gender and PPVT-R scores. Next, students from those groupings were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups: (a) phoneme awareness training group, (6) language activities group, or (c) the control group. The groups were evenly matched. There were no significant differences for age, gender, or race.

The intervention program began the second week of March and lasted for seven weeks. During this time the children in the phoneme awareness treatment group met in groups of five for twenty minutes, four times each week. Their training included three types of phonemic awareness activities, (a) say-it and move-it activities, (b) other segmentation related activities, and (c) letter-name and letter-sound training. The say-it and move-it activities offered explicit instruction in the role of segmentation in our alphabetic system. Disks representing phonemes were moved by students after the instructor articulated it. After three weeks, letters were introduced to establish the connection between the sound segments of speech and letters of the alphabet. The program included segmentation activities such as categorizing pictures by rhyme and alliteration. Children were also trained in sound-symbol associations of nine letters so they could generate CVC words.

The students in the language group also met in groups of five, four days a week for seven weeks. Their activities included lessons in vocabulary development, story reading activities, and semantic categorization. The children also received the same letter-name and letter-sound treatment as the phoneme awareness group.

The control group received no instruction in addition to that of the regular kindergarten classroom.

After seven weeks, the students were retested on the Woodcock Reading Mastery Identification Subtest, phonemic segmentation, and letter names and sounds. The children were also asked to read a list of 21 phonetically regular words and to spell five words.

The phoneme segmentation test consisted of thirty-four (34) items. Twelve of the items had been taught to the phonemic awareness group. Twelve more items were considered matched transfer items and the final ten items were broad transfer items. On the letter/sound test, children were asked to give the name of the letter and its sound. On the reading test children were asked to ready twenty-one (21) two and three letter phonetically regular words. On the spelling test, students were asked to spell the following words: lap, sick, pretty, train, and elephant. A score of zero (0) to six (6) was calculated for each item on the spelling test using criteria set by the authors.

The results of the phoneme segmentation posttest revealed that the phoneme awareness treatment group outperformed their peers in both the language activities group and the control group, with the trained, matched-transfer items and the broad transfer items.

On the letter-sound test the phoneme awareness group and the language activities group out-performed the control group.

On the Woodcock and the phonetically regular word list, the phoneme awareness group scored significantly higher than the language activities group and the control group. Finally, on the spelling test, the phoneme awareness treatment group once again scored significantly higher than the other two groups.

The findings from this study indicated that kindergarten children can be trained to segment words into phonemes. Once trained, the students are then capable of transferring this knowledge to novel situations. Phoneme segmentation training contributed to students' ability to read and spell words. In conclusion, the results of this study indicate that phonemic awareness training plays a significant role in contributing to the success of beginning readers and spellers.

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