Sound – Print Connection
Learning to read entails…





Normally developed language skills
Knowledge of phonological structures
Knowledge of how written units
connect with spoken units (alphabetic
principle)
Phonological recoding and fluency
Print exposure
Foorman, 2008
Phonological (phonemic)
awareness





Children’s knowledge of the internal
sound structures of spoken words
Correlational AND causal connection to
reading success
Becomes reciprocal with reading
Dialect differences fade with
orthographic experience
Strongest predictor of reading success,
more than IQ
Foorman, 2008
Phonological recoding…



Recodings of spellings into
pronunciations
Main mechanism for word-specific
learning (self-teaching model)
Allows words to move from a
functional to autonomous lexicon; with
practice, words become high
frequency, “sight”, automatic
Foorman, 2008
The Harm & Seidenberg 1999
Model of Reading
Phonological
Knowledge
Begin by modeling preliterate phonological knowledge
that children have
Can vary the strength and
consistency of this knowledge
… and simulate the different degrees
of phonological ability children
bring to bear on learning to read
Reading Uses this Phonological
Knowledge
Foorman, 2008
Phonological
Knowledge
The model must map
print onto this structured
phonological representation
to read aloud
The nature of the phonological
representations influences
what is learned during reading
Text
Core result: the phonologically
impaired model learns
differently
Analysis of the Model
Phonology
The core impairment is in phonology
… But leads to poor representations
between spelling and sound
Spelling
So effective interventions must target the relationship
between spelling and sound
Foorman 2008
Spoken Language
Phonological Awareness
-Recognizing that sentences
are made up of words
-Recognizing word-length
-Units in compound words
(e.g. cow/boy)
-Rhyming
-Alliteration (initial sound)
-Onsets and rimes
-Syllables: Blending
Segmenting (counting)
Isolating
Deleting
-Recognizing that words and syllables
are made up of individual sounds
Phonemic Awareness
A cognitive skill consisting of three
pieces:
-the phoneme is an abstract linguistic
unit and not a unit of writing
-the explicit conscious awareness of that
unit
- the ability to explicitly manipulate
such units
Specific Skills:
Isolating phonemes
Blending phonemes
Segmenting phonemes
Deleting phonemes
Substituting phonemes
Alphabetic Principle
Alphabetic Principle
 Bridge between sound and print
 Speech can be turned into print
 Print can be turned into speech
 Letters represent sounds in the
language
Reading Comprehension
Getting meaning from the printed word.
Depends on:
- understanding language
- decoding, the ability to figure out a
word’s individual sounds from the
visual representation of letter
sequences or letter groups that
represent individualphonemes
Graphophonic cueing system:
individual speech sounds are mapped
E.g. b ough t
bat
Torgensen, 2004
Listening - Speaking - Reading - Writing
Sound-print Connection
Reading Comprehension
Phonemic Awareness
Spoken Language
Phonological Awareness
Recognizing that sentences
Are made up of words
Recognizing word-length
Units in compound words
(e.g. cow/boy)
Rhyming
Alliteration (initial sound)
Onsets and rimes
Syllables: Blending
Segmenting (counting)
Isolating
Deleting
Deriving meaning from the
printed word.
A cognitive skill consisting of three
pieces
-the phoneme is an abstract linguistic
unit and not a unit of writing
-the explicit, conscious awareness of
that unit
-the ability to explicitly manipulate
such units
Specific Skills:
Isolating phonemes
Blending phonemes
Segmenting phonemes
Deleting phonemes
Substituting phonemes
Dependent on:
- understanding language
- decoding, the ability to
derive a word’s phonological representation
from sequence of
letters
or letter groups
representing individual
phonemes
-Grapho-phonic cueing
Alphabetic Principle system: individual speech
sounds are
- mapped E.g. b ough t
b a t
Recognizing that words and syllables are
made up of individual sounds
Listening
-
Speaking
Torgensen, 2004
-
Reading
-
Writing
Phonemic Awareness & Phonics
(Post NRP)
 Research indicates that when
instruction in phonemic awareness is
quickly paired with phonics
instruction involving letters, it
strengthens both the students’
phonological awareness skills as well
as their knowledge of the alphabetic
principle.
(Foorman et al., 2003)
Understanding the
Sound-Symbol System
Key understandings




Letters represent sounds.
A sound can be represented by one
letter and sometimes by two or more
letters.
There is variation in how we represent
sounds in words.
There is overlap in how we represent
sounds in words.
Pair each group with one of the key
understandings.
a) tail
b) clown
eight
grow
c) tree
d) bat
coat
they
say
break
Key understandings (concepts)




Letters represent sounds. /t/ /r/ /ee/
A sound can be represented by one letter and
sometimes by two or more letters.
 /b/ /a/ /t/
/c/ /oa/ /t/
There is variation in how we represent sounds in
words.
came tail say break they eight
There is overlap in how we represent sounds in words.
ow = grow
clown
McGuinness, 1999
Vowel graphemes
(variations/overlap)
‘o-e’
o_e note
oa
boat
oe
toe
o
most
ow
grow
ough though
ou
soul
‘ow’
ow
ou
ough
cow
out
drought
Consonant graphemes
(variations/overlap)
k
C
ck
ch
‘k’
kite
cat
duck
Christmas
‘ch’
ch
tch
chip
match
Skills
needed to use a sound
symbol system
With your partner write a brief
description for each
PA Skill
Blending
Segmenting
Manipulation
Skills needed to
use a sound symbol system
 Segmenting – the ability to separate sounds in
words so when you hear the word ‘stop’ you can say
the isolated sounds /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/
 Blending – the ability to blend sounds into words, so
when you hear the sounds /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/ you hear
the word ‘stop’
 Manipulate phonemes – the ability to manipulate
sounds in and out of words, so that when you read
‘blow’ with the sound ‘ou’ as in cow, and you realize
it’s not a word, you can drop the ‘ou’ sound and add
the sound ‘oe’ and read ‘bloe’
McGuinnes, 1999
Assessment-Driven Early
Instruction
Foorman, 2008

Small-group lessons

Systematic/explicit plan (PA
Sequence) for at-risk readers

Skills not taught in isolation;
integrated with total reading &
writing program

Monitor progress
Instruction must be made more powerful
for students at risk for reading
difficulties.
More powerful instruction involves:
More instructional time
Smaller instructional groups
resources
More precisely targeted at right level
Clearer and more detailed explanations
More systematic instructional sequences
skill
More extensive opportunities for guided practice
More opportunities for error correction and feedback
Foorman & Torgesen (2001)
Support Phonemic Awareness
Development




Offer a print-rich environment in which to interact
Engage children
 with print as both readers and writers
 in language activities focusing on both form and
content of oral and written language
Give explicit explanations to children to aid in the
discovery of the alphabetic principle
Provide opportunities to practice reading and writing
for real reasons in different ways to promote fluency
and independence
Learning outcomes……




Understand the concepts and skills
Perform the skills needed to use the
sound-symbol system
Internalize information about the
sound-symbol system
Know the point of reference is the
sound, not the letter.
McGuinness, 1999
Remember…

“Improvement is a process, not an event.”
(Elmore, 2004, p.254)

“It matters little what else they learn in
elementary school if they do not learn to
read at grade level.” (Fielding et al., 2007,
p.49) Kenwick School