Educators may have an opportunity to improve the overall achievement scores of students by including strategies designed to enhance their phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness has been identified as an essential precursor to reading. Many

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• Educators may have an opportunity to improve the
  overall achievement scores of students by
  including strategies designed to enhance their
  phonemic awareness skills. Phonemic awareness has
  been identified as an essential precursor to
  reading. Many children suffer from a condition
  called central auditory processing disorder.
  Students suffering from this disorder have
  difficulty distinguishing between phonemes. This
  study will be conducted to determine the
  effectiveness for developing phonemic awareness
  skills in early readers. The primary goal for
  developing the phonemic awareness skills in
  children is to establish and solidify those
  dendrites in the brain to allow for reading to
  become just as natural a process as conversation.
  Using methods to improve the phonemic awareness
  skills of students, thereby strengthening the
  neurological infrastructures that allows for the
  transaction of data within the language areas of
  the brain, may improve the comprehension skills
  for those students. If the comprehension skills
  of students become improved, then their
  performance on achievement tests may also
  improve.

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Project Follow Through

• An educational study conducted in the 1970s
  included 79,000 children in 180 communities and
  examined a variety of educational programs and
  philosophies to learn how to improve the
  education of disadvantaged children.

U.S. Department of Education, 1995
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Teaching Children to Read

• Lyon (1997) states that teaching children to read
  is the most fundamental responsibility for
  educators. At least 30 to 40 percent of children
  have difficulty learning to read. Dropping out of
  school, retention, and special education
  referrals may be attributed to the poor reading
  skills of students.
• Lyon (1997) also goes on to say that by using
  effective prevention and early intervention
  programs, poor readers can increase their reading
  skills by 85 to 95 percent.

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Auditory Processing Disorder

• Approximately 4 million U. S. students suffer
  from this condition.
• Greenwald (1999) said that many children suffer
  from a condition called central auditory
  processing disorder. Students suffering from this
  disorder have difficulty distinguishing between
  phonemes and particularly between consonants like
  b, d and p, which can pass by in milliseconds
  during normal conversation.

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Reasons For This Disorder

• Children from socially and economically
  disadvantaged backgrounds appear to be
  particularly vulnerable in strictly whole
  language classrooms because they do not receive
  as much informal letter-sound instruction at home
  as compared to their middle-class peers.

Grossen and Carmine, 1990 Grossen, Lee and
Johnson, 1995
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Brain Based Learning

• Reading involves 3 different brain systems
• Visual processes
• Auditory processes
• Speech processes

Aukerman, R.C., 1972 Crick, F., 1994 Gordon, B,
1995 Livermore, B., 1996 Neimark, J., 1995
Parnell, D., 1996
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Areas of the BrainInvolved in Reading (Visual)
Karl Wernicke (1848-1905) Paul Broca (1824-80)
Please notice the link between the Wernickes and
Brocas Areas
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Areas of the BrainInvolved in Reading (Auditory)
Please notice the link between the Wernickes and
Brocas Areas
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Central Auditory Processing Disorder
The Wernickes area works in conjunction with the
Brocas area, which is involved with speech and
hearing. The arcuate fasciculus is an essential
area of the brain required for normal speech and
language function.
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The Treatment

• Phonological Awareness

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Phonological Awareness

• Griffith and Olson (1992) defined phonological
  awareness as the ability for readers to
  distinguish and manipulate the smallest sounds in
  the English language that can change its meaning.
  The smallest recognizable speech sounds in
  language are called phonemes. Phonemes create
  syllables which then can be put together to
  create words. As an example, ox is made up of
  three phonemes- /aa/, /k/. and /s/. The English
  language contains 44 phonemes. (page 9)

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School A
School B
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Comparisons of Reading Scoresin Two Tennessee
Elementary Schools Between Students Receiving
and not Receiving Specialized Training in
Phonemic Awareness

• Raymond L. Hatfield II

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Presentation Topics

• Type of Research
• Population
• Data
• Data Analysis
• Pretest Results
• Posttest Results
• Conclusion

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The Research

• Two-Group Experimental Design
• Random Sampling
• Pre and Post Testing
• Treatment included specialized phonemic awareness
  training
• Statistical Analysis

Scientific Learning
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Population (Independent/Predictor Variables) pp.
63, 70

• School A
• 195 Students (K-5)
• School B
• 335 Students (K-5)
• Total Population 530
• Group A (control group)
• 54 Students (1-3 263)
• Group B (experimental group)
• 55 Students (1-3 318)

Demographic Markers Free/Reduced
Lunches Transient Students Similar Socioeconomic
Status
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Data (Dependent/Criterion Variables)

• Data were collected using the Brigance Diagnostic
  Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills (P. 64
  2)
• Pretest and Posttest
• Given at the beginning and end of the 2001-02
  school year

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Data Analysis

• It will be necessary to judge the difference of
  the mean averages between both groups relative to
  the spread or variability of their achievement
  scores (p. 66).
• The t-test is an analysis tool that may be used
  to determine if the means of two groups are
  statistically different.

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Probabilistic Equivalence (Pretest) p. 71

• Achieved through random assignment
• With a.05 we expect to observe a pretest
  difference of 5 times out of 100.

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Subtest Explanation p. 20
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Pretest Conclusion

• Based on the data retrieved between the two
  groups, it may be concluded that both groups are
  Probabilistically Equivalent.

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Hypotheses (Posttest Results) pp. 67, 75

• Tested at the .05 level of significance
• Stated in the null form

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Comparisons
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Posttest Results

• Based on the outcome of the t-test
• For the purposes of this study, it may be
  concluded that there are no significant
  differences indicated across all subtests
• With exception given to the 2nd grade sentence
  writing subtest
• All null hypotheses are accepted

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Conclusion

• There were no differences in the achievement
  levels between the two statistically equivalent
  groups of students.
• There may be a possibility for latent effects.
• Therefore, further research is recommended.