Phonological awareness: an investigation into the developmental role of vocabulary and short-term memory

Abstract

This paper presents some evidence of how scores in measures of vocabulary, short-term memory and phonological awareness obtained from young children (aged five, six and seven years) were related. Further data from a small-scale longitudinal study are also presented. The results are consistent with previous suggestions that with regard to working memory, “less is more” in that a relatively small memory span and age-appropriate vocabulary appeared advantageous to the acquisition of phonological awareness.

Notes

The School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences, The University of Newcastle, St Thomas' St, Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK. Email: [email protected]