In the beginning was the rhyme? A reflection on Hulme, Hatcher, Nation, Brown, Adams, and Stuart (2002).
Phonological sensitivity at different grain sizes is a good predictor of reading acquisition in all languages. However, prior to any explicit tuition in alphabetic knowledge, phonological sensitivity develops at the larger grain sizes-syllables, onsets, and rimes-in all languages so far studied. There are also developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations and reading strategies across orthographies. Phoneme-level skills develop fastest in children acquiring orthographically consistent languages with a simple syllabic (CV) structure, such as Finnish and Italian. For English, however, both "large" and "small" units are important for the successful acquisition of literacy.
Goswami
Usha
U
Behavioural and Brain Sciences Unit, Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
D001364:Awareness; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011379:Prognosis; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics; D014706:Verbal Learning