Rhyme and alliteration, phoneme detection, and learning to read.

In this article, 3 views of the relation between various forms of phonological awareness (detection of rhyme and alliteration and detection of phonemes) and children's reading were tested. These are (a) that the experience of learning to read leads to phoneme awareness and that neither of these is connected to awareness of rhyme, (b) that sensitivity to rhyme leads to awareness of phonemes, which in turn affects reading, and (c) that rhyme makes a direct contribution to reading that is independent of the connection between reading and phoneme awareness. The results from a longitudinal study that monitored the phonological awareness and progress in reading and spelling of 65 children from the ages of 4 years 7 months to 6 years 7 months produced strong support for a combination of the 2nd and 3rd models and none at all for the 1 st model.