Phonological Skills Can Be an Underlying Cause of Difficulties With Fluent Word Reading
Difficulties with reading can stem from different underlying causes. Phonological skills, which involve hearing and manipulating sounds in spoken language (e.g. phonemes, syllables) are necessary for developing strong word reading skills. Phonological skills help children understand how letters and letter patterns work to represent language in print. Problems in developing phonological awareness can contribute to difficulties with fluent word reading, and, in turn, often cause problems with comprehension.
How Problems With Phonological Skills May Present
Difficulty with phonological skills might become evident in classroom observations or assessments, even before the start of formal schooling. Children might display difficulty with:
- noticing rhymes, alliteration, or repetition of sounds
- remembering how to pronounce new words or names; distinguishing difference(s) in similar sounding words
- clapping out syllables or separating a compound word
- identifying the first sound in a word or separating a word into its individual sounds
- adding, subtracting, or substituting single sounds within a word (Understood.org; Ehri et al., 2001)
- recognizing and producing the correct sound for phonics/spelling patterns, even after practicing with them
- decoding new words
- after sounding out a word correctly, blending those sounds back together to read the word
- remembering and automatically recognizing words, even after repeated opportunities to practice reading them (Kilpatrick, 2015)
Underlying Causes of Difficulty With Phonological Skills
Possible root cause(s) of phonological difficulty include:
- lack of explicit instruction and practice in phonological and phonemic awareness
- a core problem in the phonological processing system of language (Moats & Tolman, 2019)
Preventing Problems With Phonological Skills
Many children who experience problems with phonological skills did not receive adequate instruction and opportunities to practice. These problems with phonological skills can be prevented with strong core instruction.
Approaches to Intervention for Students Who Have Difficulty With Phonological Skills
Intervention is necessary when children do not make adequate progress with phonological skills even after receiving strong core instruction with opportunities to practice. Children with phonological difficulties benefit from intensive practice with phonological awareness; practice associating phonemes (sounds) to spelling patterns; and practice decoding words (Snowling, 2013).
Culturally Responsive Practice
For older students who are experiencing difficulties reading, having to work on "babyish" phonological awareness tasks can be especially discouraging. In particular, Black and Latino students may perceive remedial intervention as a confirmation of race-based stereotypes that they are less capable than their peers, a phenomenon known as stereotype threat (Steele, 2010). However, evidence-based interventions targeted at students' demonstrated needs are crucial for their success. Teachers can reduce stereotype threat and support students who need to practice foundational skills by positioning themselves as the student's ally or learning partner (Hammond, 2013). Hammond suggests that teachers can form a trusting allyship with a student in this situation with strategies such as:
- Asking the student to share her perspective on what is causing her reading difficulty
- Setting specific learning goals with the student, and tracking her progress towards those goals
- Letting the student know explicitly that the work will be difficult but that you are her partner, and naming what you will specifically do to help her make progress
- Communicating your belief in the student's capacity to succeed (Hammond, 2013).
For Additional Information
- Skills for Early Reading: Phonological awareness
- IES Practice Guide Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
- Adams, M.J., Foorman, B.R., Lundberg, I., & Beeler, T. (1998). Phonemic awareness in young children: A classroom curriculum. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
- Blachman, B.A., Ball, E.W., Black, R., & Tangel, D.M. (2000). Road to the code: A phonological awareness program for young children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Scientific Information About Phonological Difficulties
- Bus, A. G., & van Izendoorn, M. H. (1999). Phonological awareness and early reading: A meta-analysis of experimental training studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(3), 403–414.
- National Institute for Literacy (2008). Developing early literacy: Report of the National early literacy panel [PDF].
- Wagner, R. K., & Torgesen, J. K. (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 192–212.
- Anthony, J.L., & Francis, D.J. (2005). Development of phonological awareness. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 255–259.
References
Ehri, L.C., Nunes, S. R., Willows, D., M., Schuster, B. V., Yaghoub-Zadeh, Z., & Shanahan, T. (2001). Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read: Evidence from the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 250–287.
Hammond, Z. (2013). Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Kilpatrick, D. (2015). Essentials of assessing, preventing, and overcoming reading difficulties (Essentials of psychological assessment). Boston: John Wiley and Sons
Moats. L.C.& Tolman, C. A. (2019). LETRS (3rd edition). Voyager Sopris Learning.
Steele, C. M. (2010). Issues of our time. Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. W W Norton & Co.
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