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Differentiating phonological memory and awareness of rhyme: Reading and vocabulary development in children
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1991
Year
Language DevelopmentAtypical Language DevelopmentEducationEarly Childhood LanguagePsycholinguisticsLanguage LearningPhonologySecond Language AcquisitionChild LiteracyVocabulary DevelopmentWriting DifficultiesChild LanguageCognitive DevelopmentLanguage AcquisitionSchool-age LanguageReadingReading DifficultiesLanguage StudiesAlphabet KnowledgeCognitive ScienceRhyme Awareness MeasuresPhonological AwarenessAge GroupEarly Childhood LiteracyPhonicsLanguage ComprehensionPhonological MemoryLinguistics
The study examined whether phonological memory and rhyme awareness in 4‑ and 5‑year‑old children reflect a single phonological processing skill or distinct abilities. Children completed tests of phonological memory, rhyme oddity detection, reading, vocabulary, and non‑verbal intelligence in each age group. Factor analyses revealed a shared phonological processing component between memory and rhyme awareness, yet the two tasks showed distinct relationships: memory measures correlated with vocabulary at both ages and with reading at age five, whereas rhyme awareness was unrelated to vocabulary but strongly linked to reading, indicating separate cognitive skills that differentially support reading and vocabulary development.
A study of 4‐and 5‐year‐old children investigated whether measures of phonological memory and rhyme awareness reflect a common phonological processing skill or differentiable phonological abilities. Tests of phonological memory, rhyme oddity detection, reading, vocabulary and non‐verbal intelligence were given to the children in each age group. Factor analyses performed on the measures showed that phonological memory and rhyme awareness measures did indeed share a common phonological processing component, but other analyses established that the two types of phonological processing task were nonetheless differentially linked with reading and vocabulary development. The two phonological memory measures taken in the study–non‐word repetition and digit span–were significantly related to vocabulary knowledge in both the ages 4 and 5 groups, and to reading achievement at age 5, but not age 4. These findings replicate and extend our earlier findings. In contrast, rhyme awareness scores were not significantly associated with vocabulary knowledge at either age, but were strongly related to scores on one of the reading tests, a multiple‐choice measure, at both ages 4 and 5. The pattern of findings indicates that, although there appears to be a common phonological processing component underpinning phonological memory and phonological awareness tasks, the tasks also reflect separate cognitive skills which make differential contributions to reading and vocabulary development.