Objective: The investigation was set up to determine if the intervention of shared story reading is effective in increasing phonological awareness skills of phonological segmentation and blending, while also remediating a phonological disorder by increasing percent of consonants correct. Method: A single-subject research A-B design was selected for this investigation with replication across four participants ranging in age from kindergarten to second grade. The independent variable of shared story reading (SSR) consisted of a story chosen based on one selected phonological process from inclusion criteria embedded with target words. Probe data were collected on the dependent variables of phonological segmentation, phonological blending, and percent consonants correct. SSR prompts were implemented using wh-questions, open-ended questions, utterance expansion, and word descriptions. Phoneme segmentation and blending tasks were modeled using tactile manipulatives of magnet blocks. No speech sound production cues were provided. After meeting baseline stability, the participants participated in 10 total intervention sessions, approximately 30minutes in length. Results: Out of the four participants, three participants demonstrated improvements in all three dependent variables from baseline. The fourth participant exhibited an increase in percent consonants correct and no change in phoneme segmentation and blending. Conclusion: Overall, the results confirm the hypothesis of this investigation indicating a positive effect of SSR on each of the three dependent variables of phoneme segmentation, phoneme blending, and percent consonants correct.
Keywords: shared story reading, percent consonants correct, phoneme segmentation, phoneme blending, phonological disorder, phonological awareness