Abstract:
Over the past decade, research has suggested that
phonological and word awareness skills (i.e., the ability to
reflect on and manipulate the components of language) are
important for early reading acquisition. This study
examined the phonological and word awareness skills of
language-delayed kindergarten children at the beginning and
end of a language intervention program using five tasks.
The results were compared to the performances of average
kindergarten children who did not participate in the
language intervention program. There were significant
performance differences for all tasks, favouring the average
children, at the beginning of the intervention program.
However, at the end of the training interval, the languagedelayed
children performed as well as the average children.
