What did the ‘phonology with reading programme’ involve?
The phonology with reading programme had three main components: • training in letter–sound knowledge • training in oral phonological awareness • reading books. Direct teaching in sight word recognition was also included in order to build on children’s sight word vocabulary. Over the course of the 20-week intervention, children were taught 36 sounds. Letter–sound knowledge was reinforced through reading, writing, and phonological awareness activities including blending and segmenting. Oral phonological awareness was an important part of each group and individual session. Children spent approximately five minutes in each session blending and segmenting words. The children were given book work on a regular basis in order to link letter-sound knowledge and oral phonological awareness with reading. In every group session, the TA read a storybook that had been carefully selected to contain many examples of the sound of the day. The children were given the opportunity to talk about the book b
