The Effects of Aging and First Grade Schooling on the Development of Phonological Awareness

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Abstract
The independent influences of aging and schooling on the development of phonological awareness were assessed using a between-grades quasiexperimental design. Both schooling (first grade) and aging (5–7 years) significantly improved children's performance on tests of phonemic segmentation, but the schooling effect was four times larger than the aging effect. The schooling effect was attributed to formal reading instruction, whereas the aging effect probably reflects natural maturation and informal exposure to written language. These data support a strong mutual relation between reading acquisition and phonological awareness.