Article

Phonological Representations at the Onset of Reading Acquisition: Steady use of 3 phonological detail from preschool to 2nd grade

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Abstract

Wetracked the developmental path of aspects of spoken word recognition in thebeginning years of reading acquisition in German L1 speaking children. Speechprocessing of phonemic detail in voicing was tested in preschool, in the 1^stand in the 2^nd grade. During the word onset priming test, spokenwords (targets; “Kino”, Engl. cinema) followed spoken syllables (primes) thatwere either identical to target word onsets (“Ki“), deviated in the onsetspeech sound in voicing (“Gi”) or were unrelated (“Ba”). Event-relatedpotentials (ERP) and lexical decision latencies were recorded. Results showed acomparable pattern from preschool to 2^nd grade. ERP effects emergedaround 100 – 300 ms, replicating previous findings for voicing variations.Children’s faster lexical decisions with increasing age were not paralleled inERP timing differences between age groups. Thus, from a developmentalperspective, emerging and increasing reading skills might not relate toincreasing sensitivity for phonemic detail in the tested aspects of spoken wordrecognition.

Keywords: spoken word processing, lexical access, event-related potentials, literacy acquisition, preschoolers