Program for the Enhancement of Phonological Awareness for First Graders

A school program for the enhancement of phonological awareness for first graders is presented. The training takes 12 weeks and targets all children in the class. This study examined whether and in what respect children profit from phonological awareness training. The results of 110 first graders (intervention group: n = 56), whose phonological abilities were assessed immediately before and after training are reported (Study 1), also reported are their reading and spelling skills as assessed one and a half year after the training (Study 2). Significant effects for the intervention group regarding the following areas syllabification, identification and labelling of rhymes as well to indication of sounds were found almost immediately after the program. Long-term supervision has also shown significant progress of the intervention group mainly regarding reading comprehension.