Theoretical implications

Implications for current theory arise from answers to four main questions which were addressed by the present thesis. The first question asked was: what are the effects of age and schooling on phoneme awareness? Previous research has found a strong effect of schooling (first grade onwards) on the development of PA, with some evidence of an age effect during the Kindergarten year (Bentin, et al., 1991; Bowey & Francis, 1991; Morrison, et al., 1995). Chapter 2 showed that there is an effect of both age (before the onset of formal schooling) and schooling on phoneme deletion and blending skills. Similarly, in chapter 6, a significant effect of age and schooling was found on two measures of phoneme awareness during the first year of standard schooling. All in all, these studies suggest that there is an effect of age on the development of PA both prior to and during the first year of formal reading instruction.

The majority of research to date has generally found that PA does not develop in pre-literate children (e.g., Bowey & Francis, 1991; Mann, 1986). In chapter 2, there were a significant number of children who demonstrated phoneme awareness skills in the absence of measurable reading ability. This makes an important contribution to current research by showing that PA can develop in pre-readers. Activities unrelated to reading instruction such as informal language games and music were highlighted as possible causes of this development.

The second question addressed was: what is the role of age and schooling on the development of other reading-related skills? Existing research in this area is restricted to use of the cut-off design and no study has yet looked at age effects on vocabulary

In chapter 2, we found that there was a significant effect of age, not schooling on measures of vocabulary and short-term verbal memory, and an effect of age and

schooling on visual-verbal learning. It was concluded that while schooling enhanced the ability to pair visual with verbal information (e.g., during letter-sound learning), the curriculum as it currently stands does not lead to advantages in the development of vocabulary and verbal memory. Significant age effects were attributed to informal experience of language during the pre-school years, both at home and at school.

The third question asked was: is there an effect of age on the development of early literacy? Existing research using the cut-off design suggests that there is an age effect on reading during the first years of school (Crone & Whitehurst, 1999; Morrison, et al., 1997). However, it is uncertain how strong this effect would be in children differing by several years in age. The study in chapter 3 is the first to investigate the role of age on early literacy development in matched samples across a three year age range. Results showed that the older group did not develop better reading than the younger group; and in fact had poorer spelling. There are two possible explanations for this result; there was no age effect or there was an age effect that was ‘cancelled out’ by instructional

differences between groups.

In the conclusion, we favoured the latter view because there was evidence that the earlier-schooled group was exposed to more frequent and higher quality phonics

instruction than the later-schooled group, and the amount of phonics teaching received was associated with individual progress. Therefore, we concluded that quantity and quality of phonics instruction was a stronger influence than age-related factors on the development of reading, and particularly spelling. This suggests that we would have

found a significant age effect had the two groups been exposed to the same method of instruction. Our interpretation was supported by the results of chapter 6 which showed a significant effect of age on the development of reading and spelling in two ‘instruction matched’ groups. Therefore, taken together, the evidence supports the view that there is

an effect of age on the development of early literacy skills. However, further research using instruction matched groups is needed to ascertain the size of this effect over the 4 to 7 year age range.

The fourth question addressed was: do age and different instructional methods affect how reading develops? There is very little research on how instruction may impact upon the skills which underlie reading development (e.g., Mann & Wimmer, 2002; Perfetti, et al., 1987). Due to the fact that the Steiner and standard methods of teaching reading differ in many ways, we were able to address this gap by comparing the later and earlier schooled groups followed in chapter 3. In chapter 4, it was found that although the predictors of reading and spelling in the Steiner (later-schooled) and standard educated (earlier-schooled) children were generally similar, there was a much stronger association between letter-sound knowledge and measures of literacy in the Steiner group. It was concluded that instructional emphasis on letter sounds in the standard group had reduced individual variation in this variable by the end of the year, therefore reducing its initial predictive power on subsequent reading.

In chapter 5, we found that there was a significant mediated pathway between letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness and reading in the standard but not Steiner educated group. This shows that method of instruction can affect causal links between variables which are vital to the development of reading. These last two chapters

highlight method of instruction as having an important influence on the way in which reading develops. Most theories of reading development assume that their view is universal; therefore the role of instruction is typically overlooked. The current research suggests that this is an overly narrow conception of how reading develops, and that future theories should take into account nature and quantity of instruction, and levels of starting skills.