Stepping stones to reading

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

Also important is that the letters of the alphabet can be ranked according to difficulty based on age. Although factors such as the letters that appear in a child's name may cause some individual differences in the difficulty of specific letters, the average performance across children and letters indicates that, in general, letters are typically learned in a fairly stable order. For example, the letter O is usually one of the easiest for children between the ages of 3 and 7 to recognize, in part because it is a basic and familiar shape. Other letters such as D, G, K, L, V, and Y are considerably more difficult to learn and are typically among the last to be recognized (Treiman & Kessler, 2003). This raises the issue of which letters to focus on when teaching children the alphabet or when starting reading instruction. Children may learn to sing the alphabet song in alphabetical order, but they do not learn to recognize the printed letters in this traditional order. The more logical way to expose children to the printed letters is in order of difficulty. Introduce the easier letters first to build the foundation, and then present the more difficult letters. This will ensure a better match between what is taught and children's ability to acquire the information. Attention to the case and difficulty of the letters presented can greatly enhance children's ability to make a connection between printed and spoken language.

Based on the research findings, early educators should include tasks that highlight the relationship between letter names and word pronunciations. An example of the type of tasks and progression through the different difficulty levels is shown in Table 1. The initial goal is to encourage children to connect printed letters and words to spoken words through both reading (identifying words) and spelling (selecting appropriate letters). As shown in the table, the relationship between print and sound should be explored for initial position letter names first. Once children have detected the pattern, move on to words that contain final position letter names. By holding everything except the final letter constant, children are encouraged to direct their attention to the targeted letter. After exploring the relationship between print and sound using letter names, expand to letter sounds. By presenting words that contain letter sounds in the salient initial position supplemented by letter names in the final position, children are likely to detect enough information to succeed at the task. When given words that have printed elements that can readily be linked to their pronunciation, children can gain insight into the phonetic relationship between print and speech, insight that is crucial to the successful acquisition of literacy skills.

Conclusion

Reading and spelling skills range from the early strategies of logographic learning all the way to fluent reading with comprehension. This article has been primarily concerned with one small piece of the puzzle--how to build on preliterate children's existing knowledge to facilitate the early development of literacy skills. Research indicates that across languages and cultures, most children come to school with some knowledge of the names of alphabet letters. We can use this knowledge as a stepping stone to "real" instruction in reading and spelling. Regardless of the method used for literacy instruction, children need to be able to detect the relationship between print and speech before they can be successful at the more advanced stages of reading, such as decoding and comprehending text. Building a solid foundation requires one to ensure that children truly understand that there is a systematic relationship between printed and spoken words. Using children's existing knowledge about the names of alphabet letters provides one way to bridge the gap between the visual and phonetic analysis of print. Once children have a basic understanding of the relationship between print and speech, they are ready to begin a reading instruction program in earnest.