Segmentation and representation of consonant blends in kindergarten children's spellings

The purpose of this study was to describe the growth of children's segmentation and representation of consonant blends in the kindergarten year and to evaluate the extent to which linguistic features influence segmentation and representation of consonant blends. Specifically, the roles of word position (initial blends, final blends), class of blends, homorganicity, and nasality were considered.

Forty kindergarten children completed a developmental spelling measure (26 words with initial or final blends) 3 times at 6-week intervals. Responses were analyzed for logical representation of speech sounds to describe developmental change and differential accuracy of segmentation and representation across blend types.

Kindergarten children showed varied ability to segment and represent consonant blends and were differentially successful depending on the linguistic features of the blends. Children were more likely to represent initial blends than final blends, final nonnasal blends than final nasal blends, nonhomorganic blends than homorganic blends, and initial nasal blends than final nasal blends.

During the period of emergence, the properties of phonemes that comprise consonant blends influence children's ability to segment and represent blends. This finding has implications for how phonemic awareness and spelling instruction and intervention might proceed.