Abundant research has highlighted the importance of phonological awareness as a key factor in early reading development (see Melby-Lervåg et al., 2012 for a review). The development of phonological awareness involves a child’s transition from an implicit to an explicit understanding of the sound structure of language. This explicit understanding is crucial for mastering the alphabetic principle, a foundational aspect of reading acquisition (e.g., Caravolas et al., 2013; Lundberg et al., 2010). Consequently, there has been a long-standing tradition of research focused on phonological training to help prevent reading difficulties. Pioneering studies by Bradley and Bryant (1983) and Lundberg, Frost, and Petersen (1988), along with subsequent meta-analyses (e.g., Bus & Van Ijzendoorn, 1999; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008), have demonstrated the positive effects of such interventions. However, Torgesen (2000) found that a small percentage of children—ranging from two to six percent—remained unresponsive to phonological training, struggling to conceptualize phonemes as distinct units and failing to significantly improve their phonological skills through intervention.

Most phonological interventions have been implemented either alongside or just prior to the start of formal reading instruction, with studies typically focusing on short-term developmental outcomes (Kjeldsen et al., 2019). In the current study, phonological awareness training was introduced when children were four and five years old, before formal schooling begins in Sweden at age 7. The goal was to initiate the intervention during the early stages when children’s explicit awareness of speech structure begins to develop (Wolff & Gustafsson, 2015; Dodd & Gillon, 2001). The training covered various aspects of phonological awareness, progressively moving from activities involving morphemes and syllables to focusing on phonemes. When the children turned six, one year before formal reading instruction began, explicit training in phoneme-grapheme mapping (National Reading Panel, 2000) was introduced. This training was provided to all children, both in the experimental and control groups. Therefore, the primary effects observed in this study stem from the early phonological awareness training at ages four and five.

General fluid intelligence (Gf) is a core concept in the field of intelligence. It is interpreted as the capacity to solve novel, complex problems. Gf is highly correlated with phonological awareness in 4-year-old children (Wolff & Gustafsson, 2015), and both phonology and Gf have been found to relate to early reading ability. de Jong & van der Leij (1999) found that when Gf was controlled for, the relation between phonology and reading decreased, and the direct effect of Gf on reading decreased over time. These findings support the hypothesis that the influence of Gf on early reading skills is mediated through the development of phonological awareness. Thus, we may expect that children with high Gf typically will have a more favorable development of phonological awareness skills. One important question here is if the phonological training will decrease or increase this putative influence.

The research questions are: 1) Does structured phonological awareness training starting at the age of 4 affect reading related skills twelve years later in grade 10? and 2) Are there differential effects of phonological awareness training as a function of children’s cognitive abilities? The present study thus aims at extending on the rich knowledge of effects of preventive phonological interventions preceding reading instruction. As to our knowledge there are very few previous studies which investigate long-term effects of phonological awareness training during a twelve-year period.

The participants (N=364) were recruited from 58 preschools in 8 municipalities. The participating preschools were situated in rural as well as urban regions, approximately representative of the Swedish population. Also, non-native Swedish speaking children (n=38) were included. The preschools were to have at least three children who could form a group, and who were between 3 and 10 months and 4 years 4 months old. The preschool groups were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=138) or to a control group (n=226). The groups comprised three to six children. In case there were two groups at the same preschool, both groups were assigned to the same condition. The experimental group received phonological awareness training for six weeks at the age of 4, and for six weeks at the age of 5. Before the intervention at age 4, (t1) a pre-test was given assessing Gf and phonological awareness; four, five and ten years later in grade 2 (t2), grade 3 (t3), grade 8 (t4) and grade 10 (t5) reading related skills were assessed. Informed consent was obtained from all parents before t1. The method applied in the current study will be Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and the models will be estimated with the Mplus 7.4 program (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2012). The analyses will be carried out investigating direct and indirect effects of early phonological training. There are some obvious advantages of using SEM in the present study. It allows for estimation of relations between multiple dependent variables, and for reciprocal and indirect effects. SEM also allows for the use of manifest and latent variables in the same model. The models will be estimated with the Robust Maximum Likelihood (MLR) estimator in Mplus 7. In order to take the cluster-sampling design of the study into account, the so-called ‘complex option’ in Mplus will be used to obtain cluster-robust estimates of standard errors. Chi-square, Root Mean Square of Approximation (RMSEA) with confidence intervals, Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and Standardised Root Mean Square Residual (SRMR) will be reported.

Previous findings in the project (Wolff & Gustafsson, 2022) demonstrated that early phonological awareness training preceding the ordinary kindergarten training improves children’s further development of phonological skills. Further, the training affected all the reading related measures in grades 2 and 3 (effect sizes running from d =0.37−0.54) and showed to be particularly beneficial for at-risk children. Bearing in mind the phonological training for all children at age 6, these effects five and six years after training are impressive. The data files for the recently collected grade 10 data are not yet completely cleaned and organized. Still, the effects of the early phonologicl skills on reading in grade 8 were investigated, using SEM (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2012). The assumption is that Gf is mediated through phonological awareness to early reading. Thus, phonological awareness was regressed on Gf, and reading related skills in grade 8 were regressed on phonological awareness. A manifest variable representing group assignment was related to the reading measures. There was an effect of the early phonological training on a latent measure reflecting reading related tasks in grade 8 (es = .40). When scrutinizing the effects on the manifest reading related measures, there was an effect of training on word decoding (es =.25) and reading comprehension (es =.42), whereas there was no significant effect on spelling. For the current presentation the model will be extended. Reading related measures in grades 2 and 3 will be included, and thus, most of the training effects on grade 8 and 10 reading is expected to be indirect through grades 2 and 3 reading. Direct and indirect effects of Gf and phonological awareness will be investigated. Further, interaction effects of group assignment on the one hand, and Gf and phonological awareness on the other hand respectively will be estimated.

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