The role of letter knowledge and phonological awareness in young Braille readers |
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| Authors: | Fiona Barlow&#x;Brown Vincent Connelly |
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| Institution: | Fiona Barlow–Brown,Vincent Connelly |
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| Abstract: | Research into sighted children’s reading shows that letter recognition skill predicts phonological awareness skill. Congenitally–blind children do not receive exposure to environmental print and do not generally learn to recognise written letters of the alphabet prior to schooling in Braille. A cross–sectional analysis revealed that blind children with no knowledge of written letters or written words showed no ability at measures of phonological awareness. Blind children with knowledge of written letters and no written words showed much increased phonological awareness scores and blind children with knowledge of written letters and written words scored higher still on phonological awareness measures. It was concluded that letter learning is a major contributor to the development of phonological awareness in blind children. It suggests key similarities in the underlying processes of reading development across two different populations using different modalities to learn to read. |
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