Longitudinal Studies of Phonological Processing and Reading

TLDR

Phonological processing—mental use of sound structure—is widely recognized as essential for early reading skill acquisition, with multiple studies linking phonological awareness, memory, and access speed to reading development. The study focuses on three key phonological processing skills—phonological awareness, phonological memory, and the speed of accessing phonological information. The paper categorizes reading‑related phonological skills under the heading “Types of Reading‑Related Phonological Skill.”.

Abstract

O ne of the most exciting developments in research on reading over the last two decades is the emerging consensus about the importance of phonological processing abilities in the acquisition of early reading skills (Shankweiler & Liberman, 1989; Stanovich, 1988; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). As the term is used by those who study early reading development, phonological processing refers to an individual's mental operations that make use of the phonological or sound structure of oral language when he or she is learning how to decode written language. The last 20 years of research have produced a broad variety of converging evidence that at least three kinds of phonological processing skills are positively related to individual differences in the rate at which beginning reading skills are acquired (see Adams, 1990; Brady & Shankweiler, 1991; Crowder & Wagner, 1991; and Torgesen, 1993, for recent reviews of this work). The kinds of phonological processing skills and knowledge that have been most frequently studied include phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rate of access for phonological information. Types of Reading-Related Phonological Skill