I have had a few inquiries about the research behind the best methods for teaching, and the importance of teaching, phonological awareness skills. Below is an annotated bibliography of sources I turn to that support and expound on the current best practices for teaching these skills. These are the resources from which I based the foundation of my "Small Talk Phonological Skill Builder" card deck.
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Annotated Bibliography
Eden, G.F. et al. (2015) Imaging Studies of Reading and Reading Disability. Brain Mapping
Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-397025-1.00065-8.
The reading disability dyslexia is associated with orthographic and phonological processing deficits. The brain imaging studies conducted by these researchers are contributing to our understanding of the neural correlates of successful reading intervention, the role of dyslexia- associated genes, and the cause versus consequential nature of brain-based differences in
dyslexia.
Haith, M. M., & Benson, J. B. (2008). Encyclopedia of infant and early childhood
development. Academic.
Early Childhood Development is the major reference work that provides a comprehensive entry point into all of the existing literature on child development from the fields of psychology, genetics, neuroscience, and sociology.
Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading
and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West. Reading Rockets
This article, by Louisa Moats, Ed. D, and Carol Tolman, Ed.D, states that Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system. And research shows that difficulty with phoneme awareness and other phonological skills is a predictor of poor reading and spelling development.
Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading
and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West. Reading Rockets
This article, by Louisa Moats, Ed. D, and Carol Tolman, Ed. D, states that basic listening skills and "word awareness" are critical precursors to phonological awareness. And presents the milestones that should be reached when developing these skills.
National Center on Improving Literacy (2022) Big 5 in under 5: Phonemic Awareness.
YouTube, Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLsCodzmJ6U
This video, from researchers at the National Center on Improving Literacy, details research findings regarding the most effective teaching strategies to develop phonemic awareness in school age children.
Woolridge, L. (2020) Orton Gillingham Online Academy. Dyslexia Screening Part 4.
This article provides information around the use of the standard dyslexia screening process that uses an assessment of phonological skill development to determine its presence. This table lists the skills to be assessed in order of difficulty, and the age at which children typically develop each one.
Wooldridge, L (2022). Orton Gillingham Online Academy. The Big Five: Phonological and
Phonemic Awareness (Part 2). https://ortongillinghamonlinetutor.com/
Lorna Wooldridge is a dyslexia specialist tutor with over twenty-five years of experience and qualifications in the field of learning differences, from both the UK and USA. In this article, she states the activities that she has found the most effective in developing phonemic awareness skills for students in various age groups, including “quick play” activities, and decodable books.