Stepping stones to reading

Theory Into Practice, Autumn, 2004 by Margo Bowman, Rebecca Treiman

During the alphabetic period, children start to associate graphemes with their corresponding phonemes. The development of associations between graphemes and phonemes allows for a systematic, grapheme-by-grapheme approach to deciphering words. Ehri (1998) suggested that the alphabetic phase of development begins with a partial alphabetic phase during which only some of the letters are analyzed, followed by a full alphabetic phase during which most of the letters are linked to sounds. In Ehri's view, children first focus on the boundary letters of a word when attempting to decode it. Eventually, the print-to-sound connection is more complete and children use most, if not all, of the grapheme-phoneme pairs in each word to link the printed form to the spoken form.

Stepping beyond the logographic phase

Studies that have compared how children perform when reading visually distinctive print and phonetically accurate print suggest that children who cannot yet read words out of context rely on visual cues to connect print and speech (Abreu & Cardoso-Martins, 1998; Ehri & Wilce, 1985; Frith, 1985). The research further suggests that once children begin to move from the prereading stage to the novice reader stage, as shown by the ability to read at least one preprimer type word (e.g., no, stop, or dog), phonetic cues become more important than visual cues. However, recent research indicates that literacy development is not strictly stage-like in nature; children do not necessarily operate in only one manner at any particular point in time. In fact, given the proper cues, even prereaders can use phonetic information to link print to speech (Bowman & Treiman, 2002b; Rack, Hulme, Snowling, & Wightman, 1994; Treiman & Rodriguez, 1999; Treiman, Sotak, & Bowman, 2001). Because the shift away from visually based reading launches the child into the realm of phonetic decoding, it is important to examine the factors that promote this shift. Understanding which phonetic cues prereaders use provides the opportunity to develop instructional methods that build on prereaders' existing knowledge and the opportunity to incorporate the appropriate cues into reading instruction.

What specific types of phonetic information might encourage prereaders to form systematic print-to-sound connections? U.S. prereaders are reasonably familiar with the names of letters (McBride-Chang, 1999; Treiman, Tincoff, & Richmond-Welty, 1996; Worden & Boettcher, 1990). In fact, most American children learn the names of the alphabet letters from an early age. They are exposed to picture books, alphabet books, toys, computer games, songs, and television programs all geared toward teaching them the names of letters. The prereader's environment provides a rich source of alphabetic knowledge that can be built upon to bridge the gap between visual reading and phonetic reading. Because research suggests that the development of letter-sound knowledge lags behind the development of letter-name knowledge (Byrne, 1992, Treiman et al., 1996; Worden & Boettcher, 1990), a key to encouraging the shift from visual to phonetic reading may lie in the use of letter names during early instruction. Recent scientific research supports this supposition. Treiman and colleagues have found evidence that prereaders are not limited to a logographic strategy when learning new words (Bowman & Treiman, 2002a; Treiman & Rodriguez, 1999: Treiman et al., 2001). Even prereaders can form systematic connections between print and speech when those connections are based on a type of knowledge that they do possess--knowledge of the names of the alphabet letters.