Evaluating Phonemic Awareness and Orthographic Mapping With the Woodcock–Johnson IV

Although phonemic awareness is an essential skill in learning to decode written words, practitioners may question which phonemic awareness tasks best operationalize their relationship with orthographic mapping, the process that converts a decoded word into one instantly recognized on sight. Tests from the Woodcock– Johnson IV were used to evaluate the effects of phonemic awareness tasks and vocabulary on measures of pseudoword decoding, word reading, and spelling in three age groups (ages 6 to 8, 9 to 13, and 14 to 19 years) within the WJ IV normative sample ( N = 4082). Results from path analysis indicated the effects of phonemic awareness tasks and vocabulary varied depending on age and reading task type with mixed results based on theoretical expectations. Results from the 9 to 13 age group appeared closest to conforming to hypotheses. We discuss implications of measuring phonemic awareness, reading, and spelling in the context of comprehensive psychoeducational assessment.