The research reported investigated the efficacy of intervention, developed by a speech-language therapist and implemented by a teacher, for the language and phonological awareness (PA) abilities of pre-school, socially disadvantaged children. One study established that children from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds had poorer skills on both measures compared to children of average SES. Half of the low SES group received language and PA intervention programmes and their progress was compared to untreated SES matched controls. Both programmes were highly effective with post-intervention performance not only exceeding that of SES controls but also equalling the performance of controls of average SES.
Aughinbaugh, A.2001: Does Head Start yield long-term benefits? Journal of Human Resources36(3), 641—65.
2.
Bain, B. and Dollaghen, C.1991: Clinical forum: Treatment efficacy. The notion of clinically significant change. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools22, 264—70.
3.
Band, S., Lindsay, G., Law, J., Soloff, N., Peacey, N., Gascoigne, M. and Radford, J.2002: Are Health and Education talking to each other? Perceptions of parents of children with speech and language needs. European Journal of Special Needs Education17, 211—27.
4.
Bishop, D.V.M. and Adams, C.1990: A prospective study of the relationship between specific language impairment, phonological disorders and reading retardation. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry31, 1027—50.
5.
Blank, M., Rose, S. and Berlin, L.1978: The language of learning: The pre-school yearsNew York: Grune & Stratton.
6.
Bowey, J.A.1995: Socioeconomic status differences in preschool phonological sensitivity and first-grade reading achievement. Journal of Educational Psychology87, 476—87.
7.
Burt, L., Holm, A. and Dodd, B.1999: Phonological awareness skills of 4-year-old British children: An assessment and developmental data. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders34, 311—35.
8.
Denne, M., Langdown, N., Pring, T. and Roy, P.2005: Treating children with expressive phonological disorders: Does phonological awareness therapy work in the clinic? International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders40, 493—504.
9.
Dodd, B. and Carr, A.2003: Young children's letter-sound knowledge. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools34, 128—37.
10.
Dodd, B., Crosbie, S., Mcintosh, B., Teitzel, T. and Ozanne, A.2000: Preschool and primary inventory of phonological awarenessLondon: The Psychological Corporation .
11.
Duncan, L. and Seymour, P.2000: Socio-economic differences in foundation-level literacy . British Journal of Psychology91, 145—66.
12.
Gillon, G.2000: The efficacy of phonological awareness intervention for children with spoken language impairment. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools31, 126—42.
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Gillon, G.2004: Phonological awareness: From research to practice. New York: The Guilford Press.
14.
Gillon, G.2005: Facilitating phoneme awareness development in 3- and 4-year-old children with speech impairment. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools36, 308—24.
15.
Gillon, G. and Dodd, B.1995: Effects of training phonological semantic and syntactic processing skills in spoken language on reading ability. Language, Speech and Hearing Services in Schools26, 59—68.
16.
Glass, N.1999: Sure Start: the development of an early intervention programme for young children in the United Kingdom. Children and Society13, 257—64.
17.
Hartas, D.2004: Teacher and speech-language therapist collaboration: Being equal and achieving a common goal? Child Language Teaching and Therapy20, 33—54.
18.
Hatcher, P.J. and Hulme, C.1999: Phonemes, rhymes, and intelligence as predictors of children's responsiveness to remedial reading instruction: Evidence from a longitudinal intervention study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology72, 130—53.
19.
Hatcher, P.J., Hulme, C. and Snowling, M.J.2004: Explicit phoneme training combined with phonic reading instruction helps young children at risk of reading failure. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry45, 338—58.
20.
Jefferis, B., Power, C. and Hertzman, C.2002: Birth weight, childhood socioeconomic environment, and cognitive development in the 1958 British birth cohort study. British Medical Journal2002, 305—308.
21.
Locke, A., Ginsborg, J. and Peers, I.2002: Development and disadvantage: implications for the early years and beyond. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders37, 3—15.
22.
McIntosh, B. and Liddy, M.1999: The quick test of preschool language. Education Queensland.
23.
McIntosh, B. and Liddy, M.2006: The quick test of language (for 4 & 5 year olds). Education Queensland.
24.
Moon, C., and Wells, G.1979: The influence of home on learning to read. Journal of Research in Reading2, 53—62.
25.
Nancollis, A., Lawrie, B. and Dodd, B.2005: Phonological awareness intervention and the acquisition of literacy skills in children from deprived social backgrounds. Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools36, 325—35.
26.
Nation, K. and Snowling, M.2000: Factors influencing syntactic awareness skills in normal readers and poor comprehenders. Applied Psycholinguistics21, 229—41.
27.
National Evaluation of Sure Start2006: Retrieved 27 March 2006 from Birkbeck College, London , UK: http://www.ness.bbk.ac.uk/
28.
Pan, B., Rowe, M., Singer, J. and Snow, C.2005: Maternal correlates of growth in toddler vocabulary production in low-income families. Child Development76, 763—82.
29.
Pepper, J. and Weitzman, E.2004: It takes two to talk: A practical guide for parents of children with language delays, 2nd editionToronto: The Hanen Centre.
30.
Prior, M.2005: Closing summary. The Children's Hospital at Westmead Education Research Institute Conference proceedings. Sydney.
31.
Raz, I. and Bryant, P.1990: Social background, phonological awareness and children's reading. British Journal of Developmental Psychology8, 209—25.
32.
Snowling, M.J., Adams, J.W., Bishop, D.V.M. and Stothard, S.E.2001: Educational attainments of school leavers with a preschool history of speech-language impairments. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders36, 173—83.
33.
Stuart, M.1999: Getting ready for reading: Early phoneme awareness and phonics teaching improves reading and spelling in inner-city second language learners. British Journal of Educational Psychology69, 587—605.
34.
Tizzard, B. and Hughes, M.1986: Young children learning. London: Fontana.
35.
Torgesen, J.K., Morgan, S.T. and Davis, C.1992: Effects of two types of phonological awareness training on word learning in kindergarten children. Journal of Educational Psychology84, 364—70.
36.
Troia, G.1999: Phonological awareness intervention research: A critical review of experimental methodology. Reading Research Quarterly34, 28—52.
37.
United States Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics2001: Entering kindergarten: A portrait of American children when they begin school: Findings from the condition of education 2000. Retrieved 3 November 2002 from Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office: http:/nces.ed.gov.
