The Relationships of Phonemic Awareness and Rapid Naming to Reading Development

Abstract

This article describes and summarizes research studies that analyze the shared and unique contributions of phonemic awareness and rapid naming to reading development. Three questions were addressed. Does phonemic awareness account for a proportion of the variance in reading development that is not accounted for by rapid naming? Conversely, does rapid naming account for a proportion of the variance not accounted for by phonemic awareness? Finally, do phonemic awareness and rapid naming contribute differentially to various subskills of reading development? Findings of the studies and implications for future research are discussed.