Alphabetic and Phonemic Awareness in Infants

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Alphabetic and Phonemic Awareness in
Infants   Pamela A. Terrell, M.S. Janet A.
Norris, Ph.D.   Louisiana State University Baton
Rouge, LA
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• Print Acquisition as a Secondary Ability
•   Oral language is innate and biologically
  determined (Chomsky, 2002)
• Reading and writing are viewed as secondary
  abilities since they are learned with conscious
  effort and explicit teaching
• However, specific neural mechanisms are
  required for reading as evidenced by the
  occurrence of developmental dyslexia (Sakai,
  2005)
• Evidence of link between poor reading and
  impaired auditory processing of phonological
  information, so perhaps reading is more innate
  and biologically controlled than previously
  thought (Beaton, 2004)

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• Evidence from Deaf Babbling
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•     Same course of language
  development is seen in
• deaf infants as hearing
  infants, with babbling at 6-8 months, first
  words at 10-12 months, and 2-word utterances near
  the second birthday
• Deaf infants progress through these identical
  stages of language development using manual signs
  (a visual language mode) rather than speech
• Infants signs exhibit the same linguistic,
  semantic, and conceptual complexity at each stage
• These findings suggest that the infant brain
  may be sensitive to language presented in any
  modality (Petitto, Holowka, Sergio, Levy,
  Ostry, 2004)

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Evidence from Referential Word-Object
Pairing      As early as 3 months old, infants
can pair auditory input from voices to visual
input from faces (Brookes et al., 2001)    At
18-24 months old, infants understand that
pictures are symbols for objects in the real
world (Preissler and Carey, 2004) At 18-24
months old, infants begin to point to pictures
with more intent rather than merely reaching and
grabbing at pictures in books (DeLoache, 2003)
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Evidence from Storybook Reading As early as
13-14 months of age infants increased their
referential behaviors during storybook reading
with increased attention to the pictures, making
sounds and gestures in response to pictures, and
responding to questions and comments (Bus vam
Ijzendoorn, 1997) The age of 17-18 months may
be a pivotal age for a change in the structure of
storybook reading from less attention-recruiting
comments to more questions and feedback.
Childrens vocalizations during reading also
increased at this age (Senechal, Cornell,
Broda, 1995)
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Participants Subjects included 10 mother-child
dyads Children were 12-22 months-old at the
outset 9 children exhibited typical development
with one demonstrating a developmental
delay Maternal education All mothers had at
least some college education with 1 A.S., 3
B.S./B.A., and 6 with graduate degrees 6 of
the children were in daycare full-time the
others were cared for at home by their
mothers or another family member
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Method Each child was tested prior to beginning
the study and then alternately assigned to either
a Letter Exposure condition or a control
condition   Each child screened with Denver
Developmental Screening Test Each child
was assessed at pretest and 6 weeks later.
The assessments lasted approximately 10-15
minutes. Three tasks assessed letter
awareness Four tasks assessed sound awareness.
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Letter Exposure Condition Control
Condition
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Flip book with Phonic Faces cards Letters p, b,
m, s, t, k, l, i, o Letter iconically represents
sound in the mouth using manner or place of
production cues Printed letter on corner of card
Flip book with Faces cards with no letters in
mouth or printed on card
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The Letter Exposure mothers were trained to talk
about the letters and the sounds that they made
while looking at the cards and pointing to the
letters and their own mouths. The control group
was instructed to talk about parts of the face
like eyes, nose, etc.  Parents of both groups
were to reinforce their children if they made a
sound or attempted a word. They were also
encouraged to follow the childs lead and review
the cards longer or in any order. Both groups
were asked to look at the cards and talk about
them 2-3 times a day for 6 weeks.
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Letter Awareness Task 1 Find a letter on a
Phonic Faces picture.  Q Can infants find a
letter on a face or on a corner?  A
Pre-testNO 3/10 children got 1
point out of 5
Post-testYES for 20-22 month-olds Two of
the children got 5/5 correct 1 child was in
experimental group and 1 was in control
group, but had a great deal of print exposure at
home according to parental report Suggests that
with exposure, 20-22 month-olds are aware of
letters
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Letter Awareness Task 2 Find a letter by its
name from a set of 3 Phonic Faces.  Q Can
infants find a letter by its name when depicted
on a face?  A Pre-testNO for infants lt 15
months old Questionable for infants 15
months
(4/7 with some points) Post-testQuestion
able for infants 15 months old,
4/7 increased by 1-2 points (up to 3/5 correct)  
Results are unclear since scores were random
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Letter Awareness Task 3 2 letters and 1
picture-Find a letter by name Q
Can infants find a letter by its name
and differentiate letters from pictured
objects?   A Pre-testNO some pointed to a
letter but not the
correct
one Post-testNO except 5/5 correct for the
22 mo with a much home exposure   A more
difficult task since the faces provided cues even
for children not trained on them. However,
when there is specific focus at home, the
concept can be learned.
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Sound Awareness Task 1 Find a
letter on a Phonic Faces picture by its
sound. Q Can infants recognize that letters
produce sounds?  A Pre-test NOT until 20
months, then ¾ found at least 1 and improved
at post-test Post-testYES 4/5 PF group
improved and the oldest got 5/5
correct, but even the 12-13 m/o got 2-3 correct
3/5 control group improved (only
those over 20 m/o)  Suggests that children as
young as 12 m/o may recognize that letters
depicted on a face are associated with sounds.
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Sound Awareness Task 2 Find a letter by
its sound from a set of 3 Phonic
Faces. Q Can infants associate a phoneme
with a specific letter on a face?  A
Pre-testNO 7/10 got points but didnt maintain
at post- test
which suggests guessing Post-testPossibly
PF group improved if they were gt15 m/o
Control group improved if gt20 m/o  Suggests that
older infants may show emergent awareness
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Sound Awareness Task 3 2 letters and 1
picture-Find a letter by
sound Q Can infants associate phonemes
with a letter without a face?  A
Pre-testQuestionable 6/10 pointed to a letter
although not the correct one, but only 3 of
those 6 got points at
post-test Post-testQuestionable 4/10 got
points, but only the 22 m/o with
exposure increased (from 0.5 to 4) Suggests
infants have trouble matching phonemes with
letters without the face cues, but the concept
was grasped by 22 m/o
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Sound Awareness Task 4 Single Phonic Faces
card- What does he say?  Q Can
infants produce a sound associated
with a letter in a face? A Pre-testNO, 6/10
produced some sound, but not correct
Post-testNO, 5/10 produced some sound, but not
correct only 4/10
produced some sound both pre/post  Suggests that
comprehension of the concept precedes
production.
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Preliminary Findings 1.  Children may be more
predisposed to finding letters than a secondary
model would suggest With exposure, 20-22 m/o
could reliably find a letter in a picture. Those
the same age without exposure could not Letter
name awareness may be emerging as young as 15
months Infants appeared to be responding to the
faces since fewer points were elicited with
letters alone. However, with exposure the 22 m/o
got 5/5 so letter names can be learned before age
2. Infants aged 12-13 months began to
associate letters on a face with a sound with
exposure. The skill was fairly well established
by 20 months    By 21-22 months there was an
emerging awareness of specific sounds.
Association is best with a face (even for control
group), but with exposure a 22 m/o could
recognize letter sounds 4/5.
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2. Some evidence for a developmental continuum
both across and within tasks
Across -concept understood in single picture
first -concept of letters/phonemes -concept of
specific phonemes -concept of specific
letters -concept associated within a face before
isolated letters -production of phoneme
associated with letter   Within -Responses to
letters and sounds, though inconsistent, appear
in the youngest (12-months-old) subjects -20-22
months of age appears to be a critical point
where responses become more reliable