Phonemic Awareness,
Literacy, and Students
who are DHH
Rachel Friedman Narr, Ph.D.
California State University,
Northridge
Deaf Education
rachel.narr@csun.edu
Part I
Theory related to developing
phonemic awareness with
Deaf/Hard of Hearing students
Use of the Components as
Cueing Systems while Reading
• Cueing Systems (Goodman, 1996; Clay 1991)
– MEANING cues (semantic)
– STRUCTURE cues (includes morphology) (syntactic)
–VISUAL & SOUND cues (graphophonic)
Use of all three systems is necessary for reading
proficiency (Adams, 1990)
Word-level information
• GRAPHO = Visual Configuration of words
– Graphemics (word shapes, spelling patterns)
– Morphemics (components of words)
– Syllabication
• Phonic = “sound” based
– sound-letter correspondences
Written English is based upon the
Alphabetic Principle
• The systematic use of alphabetic letters to represent
speech sounds.
F
/f/
How a word’s internal structure (it’s “sound”) relates to the
spelling (orthography).
Example of how the alphabetic principle works
How many phonemes do you
hear in…….
ship
carrot
ladder
book
box
Clarification of Terms
• Phonological Awareness~
An overarching term that includes phonemic
awareness. Phonological awareness is the
ability to identify and manipulate individual
sounds (phonemes) AND other parts of
spoken language, such as words, syllables,
onsets, and rimes.
Phonological awareness skills are associated
with spoken language BEFORE the
I like to eat, I like to eat, I like to eat, eat apples and bananas
introduction of print.
O lote to oat, o lote to oat, o lote to oat, oat opples and bononos
Clarification of Terms
• Phonemic Awareness~
The ability to identify and manipulate the
individual phonemes (sounds) in spoken words.
Includes skills such as phoneme isolation,
omission, substitution, segmentation,
blending, among others.
“Cart” without the “t” makes CAR; If you say “house” and change
the “h” to “m” you get the word MOUSE!
Clarification of Terms
• Phonics~
The understanding that there is a predictable
relationship between phonemes (the sounds
of spoken language) and graphemes (the
letters that represent those sounds in written
language).
• Research Support
– Research with Hearing Children
– Research with Deaf Individuals
• National Reading Panel
Research Support with hearing children
● Phonological awareness develops naturally in most hearing children
● Children who are good readers have good phonological
awareness skills
(National Reading Panel Report, 2000)
Research with Hearing Children
Phonological awareness…
is highly related to reading achievement and lack
of phonological awareness is correlated with reading
failure.
Phonological awareness training…
reduces reading failure and provides long lasting
benefits.
(National Reading Panel Report, 2000)
Individuals who are D/HH
• Studies indicate some deaf individuals have phonological
awareness skills
(Dyer, MacSweeney, Szczerbinski, Green, & Campbell,
2003; Harris & Moreno, 2004; LaSasso, Crain,&
Leybaert,2003)
• Children who are D/HH can benefit from instruction
emphasizing phonological awareness
(Trezek and colleagues, 2005, 2006)
National Reading Panel
on Teaching Phonemic Awareness
• Meta-analysis of studies showed teaching
children to manipulate phonemes in words
was highly effective across settings and
grades.
http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org
Where does phonological
awareness
fit within our
reading curricula?
Insert your state standards for
reading and spelling here
California Standards * Language Arts
Kindergarte
n Phonemic Awareness
1.9 Blend vowel-consonant sounds orally to make words or
syllables.
1.10 Identify and produce rhyming words in response to an
oral prompt.
1.11 Distinguish orally stated one-syllable words and separate
into beginning or ending sounds.
1.13 Count the number of sounds in syllables and
syllables in words.
Decoding and Word Recognition
1.14 Match all consonant and short-vowel sounds to
appropriate letters.
1.16 Understand that as letters of words change, so do the
sounds (i.e., the alphabetic principle).
First Grade
Phonemic Awareness
1.4 Distinguish initial, medial, and final
sounds in single-syllable words.
1.6 Create and state a series of rhyming
words, including consonant blends.
1.7 Add, delete, or change target sounds
to change words (e.g., change cow to
how; pan to an).
1.8 Blend two to four phonemes into
recognizable words (e.g., /c/ a/ t/ = cat; /f/
l/ a/ t/ = flat).
Second
Grade
Decoding and Word Recognition
1.1 Recognize and use knowledge of spelling
patterns (e.g., diphthongs, special vowel
spellings) when reading.
1.2 Apply knowledge of basic syllabication rules
when reading (e.g., vowel-consonant-vowel = su/
per; vowel-consonant/consonant-vowel = sup/
per).
Vocabulary and Concept Development
1.9 Know the meaning of simple prefixes and
suffixes (e.g., over-, un-, -ing, -ly).
Clarification of Terms
• Phonological processing~
What you DO from the time your eyes
meet the text and you make meaning from
it.
• Internal phonological representations~
The concept of phonemes that are stored
in memory for use in reading and spelling.
How can deaf children acquire a phonological system
when they have restricted knowledge of spoken
language due to hearing loss?
(Stewart & Clarke, 2003)
The land of print
literacy
What are possible routes
to the alphabetic
principle for DHH
students?
GOAL: to build INTERNAL phonological
representations
•
•
•
•
Speechreading
Speech Production
Use of residual hearing; audition
Spelling; Fingerspelling; Orthography;
Morphography
• Visual representation of English sounds
– Cued English
– Visual phonics
(Friedman Narr, 2006).
Consider the possibilities of building
INTERNAL phonological representations
• Speechreading
– Provides information about the phonological structure
of spoken English, albeit limited.
– Is easily accessible.
– Many DHH students learn to speechread incidentally.
– The skill can be taught, and is often targeted by SLPs
working with DHH students.
• Speech Production
– Provides limited information about the phonological
structure of spoken English.
– Typically targeted through speech therapy, received
by many DHH students in elementary school.
Consider the possibilities of building
INTERNAL phonological representations
• Use of residual hearing; audition
– Provides limited information about the
phonological structure of spoken English.
– Accessibility varies student to student.
• Spelling; Fingerspelling; Orthography;
Morphography
– Enhances knowledge about the
phonological structure of spoken English
through association, not a 1:1
correspondence.
Considering the possibilities of building
INTERNAL phonological representations
• Visual representation of English sounds
– Cued English
– Visual phonics
BOTH provide complete access to the
phonological information contained in spoken
English.
BOTH require specialized teacher training for use.
Cued Speech (English)
• A visual COMMUNICATION system that
uses 8 handshapes in four locations to
represent the phonemes.
• In combination with lip movements, all
sounds of spoken English look different
and are clearly understandable to
individuals who are D/HH.
• cues every phoneme at the syllable level
• focuses attention on the sequence of
sounds (phonemes) and syllables of
language
• enables the child to develop a complete
Research Support for Literacy
Development using Cued Speech
• Students who are profoundly deaf in oral,
TC, & Cued Speech programs read as
well as hearing peers when Cued Speech
is used. (Wandel, 1989).
• Deaf children exposed to Cued Speech at
home at an early age rely on inner speech
for rhyming, remembering, and spelling
similarly to hearing children but differently
from deaf children not exposed early to
CS. (Leybaert & Charlier, 1996).
Consonant Handshapes
/zh, d, p/
/m, f, t/
/TH, k, v, z/
/w, l, sh/
/h, r, s/
/j, g, th/
/b, wh, n/
/ch, y, ng/
ee, ur
ue, aw, e
i, a, oo
Vowel Positions
uh
o, ah
ie, ou
oi, ay
Hello
Visual Phonics
• A multisensory approach to phoneme
representation that incorporates tactile,
kinesthetic, visual, & auditory feedback.
• 45 hand cues and written symbols that help
make the connection between written and
spoken language.
• Each hand cue is suggestive of how the
sound is produced.
• Each sound has a written symbol
(independent from the alphabet).
Research Support for Literacy
Development using Visual Phonics
• During 1 year of reading instruction from a phonics
based reading curriculum with Visual Phonics,
Kindergarten and 1st grade DHH students
demonstrated improvements in beginning reading
skills (word reading, pseudoword decoding, and
reading comp)
(Trezek & Wang, 2006)
• Acquisition and generalization of phonic skills
occurred during use of a direct instruction reading
curriculum when it was paired with Visual Phonics,
speech production intervention, and specific
vocabulary instruction.
»
(Trezek & Malmgren, 2005)
e
d
The girls love to eat pizza.
e a t
pizza
Summary Questions/Thoughts
• How do hearing children learn to make
sense of print?
• Discuss the major differences in how
hearing children learn to read and how
deaf children learn to read.
• What are possible routes to the alphabetic
principle for DHH students? What are the
“pros” and “cons” of these routes?
• Explain the concept of the INTERNAL
phonological representation.
References
Dyer, A., MacSweeney, M., Szczerbinski, M.,Green, L., & Campbell, R. (2003). Predictors of reading delay in
deaf adolescents: The relative contributions of rapid automatized naming speed and phonological awareness
and decoding. Journal of Deaf Students and Deaf Education, 8, 215–229.
Friedman Narr, R.A. (2006). Teaching Phonological Awareness with Deaf/Hard of Hearing Students. Teaching
Exceptional Children, 38, 53-58.
Harris, M., & Moreno, C. (2004). Deaf children’s use of phonological coding: Evidence from reading, spelling,
and working memory. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 9, 253–268.
LaSasso, C., Crain, K., & Leybaert, J. (2003). Rhyme generation in deaf students: The effect of exposure to cued
speech. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 8, 250–270.
National Reading Panel, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the
National Reading
Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on
reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S.
Government Printing Office.
Stewart, D.A. & Clarke, B.R. (2003). Literacy and your deaf child. Washington, DC: Gallaudet University
Press.
Trezek, B., & Malmgren, K. (2005). The efficacy of utilizing a phonics treatment package with middle school
deaf and hard of hearing students. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 10, 256–271.
Trezek, B. & Wang, Y. (2006). Implications of Utilizing a Phonics-Based Reading Curriculum With Children
Who Are Deaf orHard of Hearing. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 11, 203 - 213.
For more information or discussion
pertaining to this presentation, please
contact
Dr. Rachel Friedman Narr
rachel.narr@csun.edu
© 2006