National Reading Panel Conclusions From Scientifically-Based Research on Phonemic Awareness Instruction

• Phonemic awareness can be taught explicitly.
• Phonemic awareness instruction helps children learn to read and spell.
• Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when students use letters of the alphabet as they are taught to manipulate phonemes.
• Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when it focuses on only one or two rather than several types of phoneme manipulation.
• Phonemic awareness instruction produces greater benefits in reading when it includes blending and segmenting of phonemes in words.
• Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when it makes explicit how children are to apply phonemic awareness skills in reading and writing tasks.
• Phonemic awareness instruction helps all types of children improve their reading, including normally developing readers, children at risk for future reading problems, disabled readers, preschoolers, kindergarteners, first-graders, children in second through sixth grades with reading disabilities, and children across various socioeconomic levels.
• Phonemic awareness instruction should consume no more than 20 hours of instructional time over the school year.
• Phonemic awareness instruction is more effective when delivered to small groups of students than when delivered to individual students or to the whole class.

Adapted from the NRP Report of the Subgroups, Chapter 2, Part 1, "Phonemic Awareness Instruction," pp.5-7.