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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology
Published on: June 29, 2021
Phoneme isolation ability is not simply a consequence of letter-sound knowledge
Charles Hulme1, Markéta Caravolas, Gabriela Málková
1Department of Psychology, University of York, York, UK. c.hulme@psych.york.ac.uk
Abstract:
Two studies investigated whether knowledge of specific letter-sound correspondences is a necessary precursor of children's ability to isolate phonemes in speech. In both studies, Czech and English children reliably isolated phonemes for which they did not know the corresponding letter. These data refute the idea that phoneme manipulation ability can only develop as a consequence of orthographic (letter-sound correspondence) knowledge.
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