MA, Kent State University, 2009, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

Research on reading acquisition has shown that phonological awareness has a high correlation with L1 and L2 children's learning to read in an alphabetic orthography. Conversely, other research indicated that learners from a nonalphabetic language background would have more difficulty decoding and learning new words than learners who come from an alphabetic background. These studies pointed out that the importance of EFL students' phonological awareness affects them when learning a target language. The purpose of the study is to find out (1) if L1 intraword phonological awareness experience affects L2 phonological awareness among EFL learners with nonalphabetic L1 background; and (2) how L1 experience affects L2 phonological awareness among EFL students with nonalphabetic L1 orthographic backgrounds.Twenty-five Taiwanese students who attend Kent State University, twenty females and five males, were recruited from the undergraduate and graduate academic levels. The results of the study provide information that the EFL Taiwanese students' L1 phonological awareness was significantly correlated to L2 phonological awareness; the findings of the study of EFL teenage learners indicated that if learners do well when manipulating Chinese Zhuyin Fuhao, their performance of English phoneme deletion and pseudo word will reach higher levels. Moreover, based on L1 backgrounds, the difficulties for Taiwanese students in learning English phonological awareness are discussed in this study; consonant clusters, consonant digraphs, in addition to rhotacized and nasal sounds, are common problems for the subjects in this study. Several implications for future research and English teaching from the findings are also presented.

Committee: Kristen Precht PhD (Advisor); Klaus Gommlich PhD (Committee Member); Karl Uhrig PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2004, Speech Pathology and Audiology

Emergent literacy is considered an important component in academic development because it is a prerequisite to later reading and writing skills. The purpose of this investigation was to determine which of the following emergent literacy factors significantly predicted spelling abilities in first grade students: (a) correct number of speech sounds, (b) reading abilities, (c) phonological awareness skills, (d) parental (caregiver) education level, (e) socioeconomic status, (f) age, (g) teacher/classroom, and (h) enrollment in reading intervention. Eighty children from a school district in Southwestern Ohio participated in this investigation. Each participant was administered a variety of assessment measures. Results indicated that the PALS reading passage level and the PALS phonological awareness tasks (Letter Sounds and Sound-to-Letter) were collectively significant in predicting the spelling abilities of children 6:0 through 7:5 years

Committee: Barbara Weinrich (Advisor) Subjects:

MAE, Otterbein University, 2022, Education

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether student scores on the kindergarten DIBELS PSF assessment are correlated with student reading assessment scores in third grade. I chose to examine this correlation because the kindergarten PSF score is used as one of the earliest identifiers of students who are at-risk for reading difficulties. I determined that a small number of those students who scored at-risk in kindergarten remained at-risk in the third grade.

Committee: Paul Wendel (Advisor); Sue Constable (Committee Member); Allison McGrath (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Literacy; Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, EDU Physical Activity and Educational Services

Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts we can give to that individual and to society as a whole, and yet many students exit school without the necessary literacy skills. For decades, research has demonstrated the importance of phonemic awareness in the development of the alphabetic principle, a prerequisite for competent reading, along with laying the foundation for more complex reading tasks; acquiring phonemic awareness is imperative for successful literacy development. Unfortunately, many students lack the necessary phonemic awareness skills to become competent readers. Extensive research exists pertaining to the development of phonemic awareness in emergent readers, but much less research is available regarding phonemic awareness development in older, struggling readers. The purpose of this study was to extend the research by exploring the effects of word box instruction, a research-based intervention designed to promote phonemic awareness, on the phonological, reading, and spelling skills of two groups of students: three kindergartners at risk for reading failure, and five fifth graders struggling with reading and spelling (i.e., treatment resisters). A further extension of the research was the use of nonsense words throughout the study. Concurrent interventions, utilizing a multiple probe across three phonemic awareness skills design that was sequentially replicated across subjects (Tawney & Gast, 1984), was implemented to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Results demonstrated a functional relation between the word box instruction and increases in all eight students' ability to segment and develop phoneme-grapheme relationships, along with demonstrated improvements in spelling and reading skills.

Committee: Moira Konrad PhD (Advisor); Ralph Gardner PhD (Committee Member); Laurice Joseph PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Special Education

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2008, ED Physical Activities and Educational Services

Phonological awareness skills (i.e., phonemic awareness, rhyme awareness, awareness of alliteration, etc.) are important to the reading ability of all participants (National Early Literacy Panel, 2007; National Reading Panel, 2000). More specifically, these skills are critical to the success of participants defined as at risk for reading disabilities (Adams, 1990; Juel, 1988). This study analyzed the effects of explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, rhyme awareness and awareness of alliteration as well as instruction in discrimination of the differences among the skills and their relationships. This study also provided a basis for introducing a computerized format of the Get it, Got it, Go and to compare the results obtained from the computer-based version with the traditional format of the assessment. Results indicate that participants responded favorably to the explicit instruction through increased responding if they had evidence of the individual skills prior to the beginning of instruction and emergence of the skill and growth in responding after instruction started. The computerized format was also found to be a valid and reliable format of the Get it, Got it Go assessment instrument. Lastly, contributions of this study and future research are presented

Committee: Ralph Gardner, III PhD (Committee Chair); Gwendolyn Cartledge PhD (Committee Member); Sheila Alber-Morgan PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Software

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2006, Physical Activity and Educational Services

The study investigated the effectiveness of a supplemental early reading intervention program on the phonemic awareness and alphabetic principle skills of students identified as being at-risk for reading failure. Six instructional assistants and two graduate students in special education provided small-group instruction for 61 at-risk Kindergarten students across three elementary schools. Thirty-two Kindergarten students from the three schools served as controls. Participants were selected based on low scores on the beginning- and middle-of-year benchmark assessments as measured by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Scores on the letter-word identification and word attack subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-III (WJ-III) were used to verify risk status. Total instructional time varied across instructional assistants. Student participants received between 6.85 and 13.70 hours of instruction across 16 weeks of intervention. Multiple linear regression was used to analyze the effects of participation in instruction, total instructional time, and level of treatment quality on the letter-word identification and word attack subtests of the WJ-III.

Committee: Gwendolyn Cartledge (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Special

Bachelor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2005, School Of Interdisciplinary Studies - Interdisciplinary Studies

With new media saturating American culture and classrooms, it is particularly important that this media be evaluated before integration into the classroom. Despite public calls for computer utilization in all levels of education, the research does not support the use of computers in teaching emergent literacy skills during early childhood. This project argues that despite the advances in modern technology, children's picture books enhance literacy in ways that computers cannot. Although many skills are needed to become literate, three widely accepted categories of literacy skills focused on are: print and phonological awareness, comprehension, and social interaction. To utilize literacy instruction time most effectively, this project evaluates the media of computers and picture books through analysis of: media evolution in the classroom, the physical format of the media, and an original observational study.

Committee: Christopher Myers (Advisor) Subjects:

Bachelor of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2024, Education

In this study, I analyzed the ways music can teach phonological awareness to contribute to student engagement and literacy achievement. In recent years, literacy achievement has fallen short. With phonological awareness skills contributing to the success of a reader, an improvement needs to be found. Through the completion of teacher interviews and assessing the different outcomes between phonological awareness lessons with and without music, I was able to determine that music has the capability to improve a student's literacy skills. These findings contribute to the field of education by highlighting the need for supplemental instruction and the power that music integration into core content areas can have for students. This study provides insights for future research that can be done in this field to achieve more positive educational outcomes.

Committee: Kristin Farley (Advisor); David Schubert (Committee Member); Michael Daiga (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Elementary Education; Music; Music Education; Reading Instruction

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.), University of Findlay, 2023, Education

Academic achievement cannot be addressed without considering the underlying neurocognitive constructs foundational to learning. Early identification and interventions can keep disabilities from manifesting (Balikci et al., 2020), however, there is little research or consistency in practice relative to using kindergarten screening assessments, and linking interventions to specific foundational weaknesses. This study aims to provide information regarding current practices of identifying neurocognitive constructs and developmental weaknesses for developing prescriptive interventions. This descriptive research study utilized a sequential mixed-methods design. An electronic survey was disseminated through three professional educator groups (n = 58). Data analysis included descriptive analysis, Chi-square cross-tabbing, and inductive coding. Results indicate only one neurocognitive construct is assessed by more than half of the respondents, and 5 of the neuroconstructs are assessed by less than 25% of the respondents. In spite of 95% - 100% of respondents being familiar with research-based interventions, less than 10% of respondents design interventions for neurocognitive areas they assess. The results of this study show huge discrepancies between knowledge and application in kindergarten screening. Recommendations include utilizing a standardized kindergarten screening assessment to identify foundational weaknesses necessary for learning in order to design prescriptive interventions.

Committee: Mary Heather Munger Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kara Parker Ed.D. (Committee Member); Jon Brasfield Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Educational Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2022, Communication Sciences

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a developmental speech sound disorder (SSD) notable for its severity and persistence of speech difficulties. A debate has surfaced historically about the cause of the speech and language deficits observed in the disorder. As children with CAS often present with comorbid language problems (i.e., receptive and expressive), learning disabilities (i.e., reading and spelling), and fine and gross motor difficulties, any conceptualization of the disorder should include an accounting of the multiple domains affected. However, CAS has been primarily viewed as a motor-speech disorder affecting speech production with consequences for expressive language. While there is extensive research about the association between an early diagnosis of other idiopathic SSD and poorer literacy outcomes, there is limited research investigating this same association for CAS. Given the increased risk of reading disorder (RD) with other idiopathic SSD, a better understanding of this association for CAS is crucial for children with this diagnosis. This dissertation research investigated literacy and literacy-related skills in a group of children with an early diagnosis of CAS (n = 16), ranging in age from 8 to 14 years. Comparisons were made with a group of children in a similar age range with a diagnosis of reading disorder without any history of SSD (RD-no SSD, n = 16). Results suggest that many children with an early diagnosis of CAS share the same degree of difficulty with word-level decoding as those diagnosed with RD-no SSD. In contrast, the two groups' phonological processing abilities were significantly different. The CAS group scored below the normative mean for phonological awareness and phonological memory, and the RD-no SSD group obtained mean scores within the average range. Additionally, subgroups were identified within the CAS participant group by average and below-average word-level decoding fluency. Below-average decoding fluency was associa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Lewis (Committee Chair) Subjects: Language; Reading Instruction; Speech Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, EDU Teaching and Learning

Research that describes how adults acquire and use new information, collectively called adult learning theory, has potentially important implications for facilitating such adult learning experiences as educator professional development. The purpose of this study was to examine whether integrating adult teaching practices derived from adult learning theories into early childhood educators' professional development would result in better gains in educator engagement in professional development, phonological awareness abilities, phonological awareness knowledge, and language and literacy beliefs. The impact on educator engagement and educator proximal knowledge was analyzed using one way ANOVA. The impact on educator phonological awareness abilities, phonological awareness general knowledge, and beliefs was analyzed using a 3 X (2 X S) mixed analyses of variance to examine the pretest to posttest change between educators participating the three conditions. Results revealed significant findings for increased engagement in professional learning and gains in educators' general knowledge. This study is a first step in understanding effective adult teaching practices that may or may not contribute to better educator outcomes and promoting more effective professional learning experiences for early childhood educators.

Committee: Shayne Piasta B (Advisor); Laura Justice M (Committee Member); David Stein (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Educational Theory; Experiments; Preschool Education

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2014, Communication Sciences

Historically, Zambian pupils have performed poorly on regional and national literacy examinations despite the best efforts of various stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to investigate the differences in regular classroom instruction and two treatment approaches, a clinician-directed approach and a home program, in literacy acquisition in 7 participants from Lusaka, Zambia. This is a single-subject multiple baseline study. The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) was used as the assessment measure. Activities from the Ladders to Literacy Kindergarten Activity Workbook comprised the intervention protocol. Results indicated that participants in treatment groups experienced greater improvements than controls on DIBELS tasks. Children who received an intervention focused on training phonological awareness skills performed better than children receiving regular classroom instruction. More research should be developed to continue to investigate appropriate literacy training protocols for Zambian children.

Committee: Barbara Lewis Dr. (Committee Chair); Angela Ciccia Dr. (Committee Member); Kathryn McNeal (Committee Member) Subjects: Literacy

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2014, Reading

The purpose of this study was to examine how the implementation of the Wilsons Fundations Program in first grade classrooms impacted reading growth, more specifically, the growth of phonological awareness and fluency of first grade students. This study also asked whether or not the length of the intervention, Wilsons Fundations, impacts student success in the program. The Wilsons Fundations program (Wilson Language Training Corporation, 2012) is a systematic, explicit, and structured multi-sensory language program. According the Bradford (2008) using multisensory teaching methods simultaneously will help the student learn and hold onto new information better. A sample of three groups (one group for each year) of first grade students scores from three AIMSweb screeners (Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency and Oral Reading Fluency) were collected and analyzed from an elementary school in northwest Ohio. There were approximately 50 students in each group. The first group received no intervention. The second group received an accelerated version of the intervention during the second semester of school. The third group received a full year of the intervention. After running statistical tests, each post-test from all three groups and all three screeners had statistically significant differences. In addition, there were also significant differences between each group. These data indicate that employing the Wilsons Fundations Program in first grade classrooms appears to impact their phonological growth, as does the length of the program intervention.

Committee: Cindy Hendricks PhD (Committee Chair); Penny Soboleski PhD (Committee Member); Mark Earley PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Theory; Elementary Education; Literacy; Reading Instruction

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Human Ecology: Human Development and Family Science

This multiple baseline design study evaluated the efficacy of a Tier 2 early literacy intervention on low-income preschool children's phonological awareness (PA) skills. The intervention was delivered three to four days a week by a trained interventionist to small groups of children using an interactive approach with frequent opportunities to respond and contingent feedback. Groups participated in 28 to 36 lessons that lasted about 10 minutes and focused on PA and alphabet knowledge. Seven children, across three groups, participated in the lessons and weekly progress monitoring assessments. All children demonstrated gains on the primary outcome measure of first sound identification as a result of the Tier 2 intervention. Most children also demonstrated gains on secondary and distal measures of PA and alphabet knowledge. Results provide support for the application of Response to Intervention (RTI) in early childhood and signify the potential benefits to learners who need instruction beyond the core curriculum.

Committee: Howard Goldstein (Advisor); Cynthia Buettner (Committee Member); Shayne Piasta (Committee Member); Diane Sainato (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Early Childhood Education; Literacy; Preschool Education

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Allied Health Sciences : Communication Science and Disorders

The predictive power of phonological awareness for later literacy outcomes has prompted educators to develop interventions targeting these skills in children at-risk for qualifying for special education services. These programs have proven successful in positively affecting later literacy achievement. However, studies comparing different intervention strategies are relatively lacking. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two phonological awareness intervention strategies (drill-based and naturalistic). Forty-four at-risk preschool children were assigned to one of three groups (drill-based, naturalistic, or control group). The intervention groups received twenty minutes of intervention, twice a week for four weeks. Results indicate that both intervention methods were successful in increasing preschooler's phonological awareness skills compared to a non-treatment control group.

Committee: Dr. Nancy Creaghead (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2012, Speech and Hearing Science

Considerable evidence has shown that kindergarten measures of phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge are significant predictors of word decoding ability in many typically developing children. Many children with speech sound disorder (SSD) have been found to exhibit poor phonological awareness; however, very few studies have provided a thorough investigation of their knowledge about letter names and letter sounds. The current study was thus designed to examine alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness, and their relationships, in kindergarten children with SSD (n = 16). Alphabet knowledge was assessed by comparing accuracy in naming of all 26 letter names and letter sounds, and was further evaluated to determine differences as a function of letter name category. Two levels of phonological awareness on an elision task (larger vs. smaller units) were compared. Finally, correlations between alphabet knowledge and phonological awareness levels were calculated. Overall, participants knew more letter names than letter sounds, and their letter sound knowledge varied according to letter name categories. Participants exhibited greater accuracy when deleting larger sized units, as compared to smaller units. Furthermore, children whose speech errors were atypical or severely delayed for their age had the lowest scores on the elision task, but performed as well as others on both measures of alphabet knowledge. Outcomes from this study suggest that some children with isolated SSD would have acquired knowledge about letter names and sounds in their kindergarten year, but may encounter difficulty in developing deeper levels of phonological awareness.

Committee: Rebecca McCauley PhD (Committee Chair); Laura Justice PhD (Committee Member); Monique Mills PhD (Committee Member); Shayne Piasta PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Speech Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2007, Educational Services and Research

The study investigated whether phonological awareness instruction, based on Phonological Awareness Training for Reading (Torgesen & Bryant, 1994), was effective in improving the phoneme-blending, phoneme-segmentation, and word reading skills of preschool children at-risk for reading disabilities. Three preschool children at-risk for reading disabilities participated in this study and were pulled out during classroom free play time. They received fifteen minutes of instruction five days a week. A native English speaker served as the interventionist and implemented the instruction on one-on-one basis. Multiple probes across subjects design was used to analyze the effects of the instruction on phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF) and nonsense word fluency (NWF) of the participants as measured by Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Pretest and posttest measures and daily Curriculum-Base Instruction (CBM) also provided data for student progress. Results of DIBELS indicated that phonological awareness instruction was effective to improve PSF for all participants. Although phonological awareness instruction did not show functional relation with NWF because one participant failed to show improvement, two participants did made progress. Pretest and posttest measures as well as CBM also have implications on student progress. Limitations of the study and directions for future research are discussed.

Committee: Ralph Gardner (Advisor) Subjects: Education, Special

Masters in Education, Marietta College, 2005, Education

Phonological awareness is one of the areas of early literacy that is a good predictor of later success in reading. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a representative group of pre-kindergarten classrooms in the Mid-Ohio Valley region of Appalachia. The researcher looked at the methods used by teachers to explicitly and implicitly teach phonological awareness in their classrooms. A Likert scale survey was administered to investigate methodology used by teachers to expose students to these skills in the classroom. Teachers answered questions that focused on their use of strategies to develop early literacy skills such as phoneme and grapheme recognition, segmentation, blending, rhyming, and syllabication. The results suggest that the pre-kindergarten programs currently in operation are inadequate in their teaching of early literacy phonological skills. Results further indicate that teachers are teaching with old reading readiness paradigms rather than research-based early literacy exposure paradigms.

Committee: Dorothy Erb (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2011, Cognitive Linguistics

Cognitive Linguistic Theory posits that language is usage-based and dependent upon shared cognitive processes. As such, language development is partially reliant upon understanding the communicative intent of speakers as well as overall cognitive development. Children diagnosed with a Specific Language Impairment (SLI) do not have an identifiable sensory, motor, or cognitive cause for their language difficulties yet remain at risk for additional language delays. One such delay is with phonological awareness development, an ability that typically becomes observable in 4-year-olds and relies heavily on dynamic categorization and understanding of part-whole relationships. Furthermore, learning that objects have composite parts and properties is often facilitated by an established joint attention between speaker and listener. The interplay between attention, categorization, and part-whole skills in young children with SLI warrants investigation in order to better understand SLI's underlying causes and possible therapeutic improvements.

Committee: Todd Oakley PhD (Committee Chair); Mark Turner PhD (Committee Member); Ciccia Angela PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Linguistics

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2013, Antioch Seattle: Clinical Psychology

This study investigated the early effects of the Tomatis Method, hypothesizing improvement in processing speed, phonological awareness, reading efficiency, attention, behavior and brain physiology by the end of Phase 1 of the Tomatis Method. This study documented the effects of the first phase of the Tomatis Method on children with ADD ages 7-13. Of the 25 participants, 15 received solely the Tomatis treatment while 10 served as controls and were stabilized on ADD medication three months prior to and throughout the study. Therefore, this research study compared Tomatis versus non-Tomatis intervention, not ADD medication treatment with Tomatis intervention. The Tomatis group received 15 consecutive 2 hour sessions; participants received no additional vestibular or visual-motor exercises throughout the research. Results revealed statistically significant improvements for the Tomatis when compared to the non-Tomatis group: the experimental group showed significant improvement in processing speed, phonological awareness, phonemic decoding efficiency when reading, behavior, and auditory attention. A statistically significant increase in slow brain activity at central and parietal midline recording sites in the Tomatis group was observed when comparing pre- and posttreatment theta/beta ratios within each group. Taken in isolation, these are paradoxical findings as they do not concur with the gains documented. The peak alpha frequency values and the z-scored theta/beta ratios of the pre- and post- qEEGs for each participant in the Tomatis group were further explored. The paradoxical increase in theta/betha ratios obtained from individual raw values were not observed to the same extent when using z-scores. The z-scores suggested that the theta/beta ratio, although higher for the Tomatis group after training, remains within the average range for all participants. The individual analysis showed that the changes observed still fell within normal values, which may se (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alejandra Suarez PhD (Committee Chair); Maritza Rivera-Gaxiola PhD (Committee Member); Patricia Linn PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology