Redefining Individual Growth and Development Indicators: Phonological Awareness.

Area of Science:

• Early Childhood Education
• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Measurement

Background:

• Early literacy skills are strong predictors of academic achievement.
• Phonological awareness is a key component of early literacy development.
• Effective assessment tools are needed for early identification and intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the development and revision of four phonological awareness measures.
• To evaluate the utility of these measures within an early childhood Response to Intervention framework.
• To provide reliable tools for assessing foundational reading skills.

Main Methods:

• Development and revision of four specific phonological awareness measures: Individual Growth and Development Indicators Sound Blending, Syllable Sameness, Rhyming, and Alliteration 2.0.
• Two studies were conducted to inform the measure development and revision process.
• The utility was examined within a Response to Intervention (RTI) framework.

Main Results:

• The study details the iterative process of creating and refining phonological awareness assessments.
• The revised measures aim to provide accurate and sensitive indicators of skill development.
• The utility of these measures in an RTI context was explored.

Conclusions:

• The developed and revised phonological awareness measures are valuable tools for early childhood education.
• These measures can support the identification of children needing literacy support.
• The study contributes to the field of early literacy assessment and intervention.