AI Insight
This action research study implemented an eight-week phonological awareness training program with 14 preschool children aged 48-60 months and examined its effectiveness. Children's phonological awareness scores increased substantially from a mean of 9.85 before the intervention to 25.78 afterward, with syllable blending and initial sound matching showing the strongest improvements. The study demonstrates that structured classroom-based phonological awareness activities can significantly enhance early literacy skills in preschool settings.
Why it matters
The findings provide practical evidence that phonological awareness, a key predictor of reading success, can be systematically developed in preschool classrooms through structured activities. This offers educators a validated approach to support early literacy development during a critical developmental window.
Understand the Science
Phonological awareness skills developed in early childhood are accepted as one of the strongest predictors of children’s future reading success. However, there are only limited practical studies on how these skills can be supported in a systematic and sustainable manner in preschool classroom settings. This study aims to design and implement developmentally structured activities to support preschool children’s phonological awareness skills and to systematically examine the implementation process and changes observed among the participating children within an action research framework. The research was conducted using an action research design, and 14 children who were 48–60 months old and 30 preschool teachers participated in the study. During the data collection process, teacher interviews, observations, researcher logs, and the Early Literacy Test were employed. Prior to the intervention, it was found that the phonological awareness mean scores of children were low (mean = 9.85). After the eight-week implementation period, the mean pre-test score was 9.85, whereas the mean post-test score was 25.78. The highest post-test mean scores were observed for syllable blending and initial sound matching skills. The findings showed higher post-test phonological awareness scores than pre-test scores among the participating children. The study addresses an important gap in the literature by providing a practical example of phonological awareness instruction in an early childhood classroom setting.