Phoneme isolation ability is not simply a consequence of letter-sound knowledge.
Two studies investigated whether knowledge of specific letter-sound correspondences is a necessary precursor of children's ability to isolate phonemes in speech. In both studies, Czech and English children reliably isolated phonemes for which they did not know the corresponding letter. These data refute the idea that phoneme manipulation ability can only develop as a consequence of orthographic (letter-sound correspondence) knowledge.
Hulme
Charles
C
Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK. c.hulme@psych.york.ac.uk
Caravolas
Markéta
M
Málková
Gabriela
G
Brigstocke
Sophie
S
D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception