Our Research!
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Key Research:
Bialystok, E., Luk, G., & Kwan, E. (2005). Bilingualism, Biliteracy, and Learning to Read: Interactions Among Languages and Writing Systems.
Found that bilingual children can transfer phonological awareness skills from one language to another (e.g., Spanish to English), particularly when the writing systems are similar (as with English and Spanish).
Implication:
Spanish-speaking children learning English can benefit from strong phonemic awareness in Spanish, which supports English reading development.
1. System-Wide Cross-Language Generalization
A pilot study with two bilingual children with phonological disorders focused on teaching Spanish consonant clusters. After a six-week intervention, both kids significantly improved not only in Spanish, but also in English phonological performance—demonstrating cross-language phonological transferarxiv.org+15pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov+15pubs.asha.org+15.
2. Early Phonemic Awareness in Kindergarteners
Brice & Brice (2009) compared monolingual and bilingual kindergarteners and found bilingual children showed specific differences in distinguishing voiced vs. voiceless contrasts, indicating early phonemic blending profiles differ by language background journals.sagepub.com.
3. Preschool Emergent Literacy Interventions
Xigrid Soto (2019) showed that teaching phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge in Spanish preschoolers—with explicit English transfer instruction—yielded gains in both languagesjournals.sagepub.com+15digitalcommons.usf.edu+15link.springer.com+15.
An MDPI study (“Libros en Mano”) reported preschoolers who received Spanish-based PA intervention increased skills in both Spanish and English—especially syllable segmentation and letter-sound knowledgemdpi.com+2mdpi.com+2digitalcommons.usf.edu+2.
4. Typical Phonological Development Patterns
A longitudinal study on Head Start bilingual preschoolers found that segmental accuracy improved over one year in both languages. Shared phonemes saw cross-lingual gains, while language-specific consonants did not—showing the importance of shared sound exposure pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.
5. Rhyme Awareness & Sound Segmentation
Research by Raynolds, López-Velásquez, and Olivo Valentín (2017) with pre-K Spanish-speaking ELs demonstrated that explicit instruction in rhyme awareness and initial sound segmentation in both English and Spanish boosts phonological blending capacity in both languages arxiv.org+15link.springer.com+15sciencedirect.com+15.
6. Phonological Awareness, Working Memory, and Reading
Karina Hanson’s Purdue dissertation (ages 6–7) found that phonological awareness in one language correlates with reading in the other. However, when controlling for working memory, the cross language effect moderates—highlighting memory as a key mediator in blending and transfer docs.lib.purdue.edu.
Key points headlined by research
Research shows that about 80-90% of a child’s brain is developed by age 3. During this period, millions of neural connections are forming, influenced by experiences, interactions, and early learning. That’s why early childhood stimulation—through talking, reading, singing, and interactive play—is so important for cognitive, social, and language development.
This fact is a strong argument for high-quality early education programs like 1 2 3 Super Empowered !
• Forgetting curve - Most research aligns with this concept, demonstrating a rapid decline in knowledge retention shortly after learning, with the biggest drop occurring within the first few days.
• Active Learning Methods - Studies consistently show that engaging methods like hands-on activities, discussions, and teaching others significantly enhance knowledge retention compared to passive learning techniques such as lectures.
• Spaced Repetition - Regularly revisiting information at spaced intervals is considered one of the most effective strategies to solidify learning and prevent rapid loss of knowledge.2 Column
• Relevance and Real World Application - When children can connect new information to their personal experiences or see practical applications, their ability to retain knowledge improves.
Other important factors to consider:
• Age - Younger children may forget things at a faster rate compared to older children.
• Individual differences - Learning styles and motivation vary between children, impacting how well they retain information.
• Learning Environment - A supportive and engaging classroom environment can significantly influence knowledge retention.
Click the button to the left to view links to all of our research.
Video and sound by: Roman Parsonese and Aaron Sokoloff
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