Clark Barrow

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Syllable: “1a. A unit of spoken language consisting of an uninterrupted sound formed by a vowel, diphthong, or syllabic constant alone or by any of these sounds with one or more consonants” (Pickey, 2002, p. 1396).

Spoken language is made of parts smaller than words. These parts are syllables and phonemes (Gillet, Temple, & Crawford, 2004). The first of these two parts is syllables and the second is phonemes. “Syllables are the pulses of speech that carry its rhythm: The word bicycle has three syllables and streetcar has two” (p. 16). Children’s attention to syllables can be measured by their ability to clap their hands together as they say words; this usually happens by the age of 4 (Goswami, 2000, as cited in Gillet et al.).

Early reading instruction’s success depends on children’s ability to identify words. Word identification is contingent upon: “(a) knowledge of letter-sound correspondences; (b) skills for blending, chunking, and segmenting words into symbols and sounds; and (c) automatic word recognition or sight reading” (Fox, 2000 … as cited in Lance, Beverly, Evans, , & Mccullough, 2003, Developing Successful Word Identification section, para. 1). Children who experience language-based learning disabilities usually suffer from a deficit in phonemic awareness, which includes the association of sounds with symbols and syllable recognition (Lance et al.).

Gillet, J. W., Temple, C., & Crawford, A. N. (2004). Understanding reading problems: Assessment and instruction (6th ed.). Boston: Pearson.

Lance, D. M., Beverly, B. L., Evans, L. H., & Mccullough, K. C. (2003). Addressing literacy: Effective methods for reading instruction. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 25(1), 5+.

Picket, J. P. (Executive Ed.). (2002). American heritage college dictionary (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.