[ Post a Response | Phonological Awareness and Literacy ]
Posted by speechlady on 4/14/2005, 1:03 am, in reply to "opinions on phonemic awareness"
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Your gathering of info may be over but your career is just beginning so I wanted to share some insight. The early childhood teacher and myself began an intensive phonemic awareness program with our 3-5 yr olds this year. We did a loose data collection but estimate that the letter recognition and sound-to-letter correspondence increase by 65% as compared to the previous year. Sight word recognition and rhyming ability increased by approx. 50% over last years students. Many other extra benefits were observed. Our program was used Animated Alphabet and Animated Literacy. Each letter of the alphabet has a picture character ie. Uncle Uptown's Umbrella that is paired with a body movement such as pointing up while saying "uh". The program includes all of the important emergent literacy steps paired to music with fun rhymes and movement. The Earobics computer program is an excellent compliment. It allows the child to have individual practice and tracks progress that teacher can check later.
I also service older LD students. A whole classroom approach usually doesn't work because of the wide spread of ability levels. Earobics has an older version with age appropriate pictures, etc. It also produces individual results. I do encourage teachers of the LD students to use their weekly spelling list(s) and generate rhymes, predict or tap out syllables, and blend sounds into words.
Success story! A regular division sixth grader reading and writing well below grade level but compensating was identified as having poor phonemic awareness skills. He was retained twice in the early grades due to ADD. He began phonemic awareness training last Spring, and attended summer reading. We continued ear training in the Fall. He reported last week that he had straight A's on his report card for the first time. It does work! (Reading skills increased 2.5 grade levels in nine months).
Final thought, research shows that intensive ear training or phonics drill results in improvement with kids who have dyslexia. It works the same area of the brain!
Best of luck in your career, Speechlady
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