INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCE VARIABLES THAT PREDICT RESPONSE TO TRAINING IN PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

The cognitive abilities that predicted growth in response to a 12-week training program in phonological awareness were investigated with a s ample of 100 kindergarten children. The children were selected from tw o elementary schools with historically low achievement in reading. Six ty children received training in both analytic and synthetic awareness skills, and 40 children constituted a no-treatment control group. Pre test measures included assessment of phonological awareness, phonologi cal memory and naming rate, letter knowledge, reading and spelling, an d general verbal ability. Growth in phonological awareness was assesse d during the middle and at the end of the training period. Hierarchica l linear modeling was used to estimate individual growth curves in pho nological awareness for children in both the treatment and control gro ups. Initial comparisons between children in the two groups indicated substantial overall training effects in phonological awareness for chi ldren in the treatment group. For children in the training group, the model that best predicted growth in analytic awareness included invent ed spelling and general verbal ability, while growth in synthetic awar eness was predicted best by a combination of invented spelling and rap id automatic naming of digits. (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.