What happens when rhythms and phonemes collide?
Top Takeaways
When two sounds differ, but only at the very beginning, such as /ch/ and /sh/ or /pr/ and /br/, some children merge these and perceive two different words as one single word. Merging in this way is known as conflation and it can happen without the child realising what they have done.
The front edge of a sound is also where rhythm is measured. When a child displays sensitivity to rhythm and sensitivity to phonemes, their attention is focused at the front edge of the sound, whether in music or language.
Vowel sounds are often longer in duration, have a less well-defined edge and can carry feeling. Consonants on the other hand are shorter in duration, sharper in terms of definition and convey a message with clarity. A child attuned to the front-edge of a sound is ready to perceive the smallest sounds of language and discern between them.
Have you ever taught a child with weak phonological awareness? The differences between sounds are poorly defined and individually sounds are swapped around. A lack of phonological discrimination could be explained by conflation. Conflation, according to the OED is the merging of two or more sets of information, texts, sets of ideas etc into one.
What conflation is and where it happens
One of the most fascinating aspects of conflation is that it can happen at different levels of conscious awareness. So, for example teenagers learning facts about physics might conflate words such as conduction and convection. After all, these terms look similar on the page and both are types of energy transfer.
When brown and green become one colour.
Younger children might conflate colours such as black and brown as both begin with the same phoneme and are dark colours. The rapid colour naming test in the Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing reveals such conflation. For instance, a child I assessed once as part of a reading intervention conflated brown and green. Any brown or green square in the assessment was named ‘grouwn’ (it rhymed with brown). She had conflated the consonant blends of ‘br’ and ‘gr’ and invented a name for both colours.
The sounds that differ only at the front edge.
In the early stages of reading, conflation can underpin confusion between consonant digraphs such as ‘ch’ and ‘sh’. Another typical conflation is ‘th’, and ‘ph’ (and ‘f’). In all of these examples, the sounds are similar and they differ only on their onset - the very beginning of the sound.
Why rhythm and phonemes meet at the onset
A child with sensitivity to rhythm is attuned to the onsets of the smallest sounds of language. In terms of rhythmic precision, the front edge of the sound is also the point at which the rhythmic boundary occurs. Children with a well-developed sensitivity to rhythm are also attuned to phonemes and are less likely to conflate the sounds. Logically, cultivating sensitivity to rhythm would help children to detect the onsets of phonemes at the early stages of reading.
The notion that sensitivity to both rhythm and the smallest sounds of language overlap in terms of a child's auditory perception has been around for decades and has been supported by research. A positive correlation between sensitivity to rhythm and phonemic sensitivity has been shown in many studies. To explore this in more detail and to read about the research, click here for my free guide (and receive a downloadable pdf).
It’s easy to understand that rhythm and phonological processing overlap if we consider that the start of a phoneme - the onset of a syllable is exactly where sensitivity to rhythm is measured - and this principle applies to musical sound too, particularly as sensitivity to rhythm is detected at the very start of a sound.
The ambient speech puddle
Thinking for a moment about words that begin with a consonant, imagine focusing mostly on the vowel sound of each syllable, without being able to discern the shape of the initial phoneme with sufficient clarity. The sounds would merge together into a kind of ambient speech puddle.
What consonants offer (but vowels don't).
Vowel sounds carry interesting information such as emotion, or tone of voice. They are longer (in milliseconds) and without defined edges. Now imagine focusing on the onset of those syllables. The consonants are shorter (in milliseconds), more sharply defined and more distinctive, leaving plenty of headspace for cognitive control. If consonants are prioritised, information flows easily and the message lands with clarity.
Rhythm for Reading and the front edge of sound
The Rhythm for Reading programme addresses these distinctions through group teaching that is fun and supports early reading in particular. Information processing is enhanced by sensitivity to rhythm because rhythm focusses attention onto the onset of the sound, which is where the details are sharpest. This kind of information processing remain effortless, easy and fluent.
FAQs
Is conflation the same as a phonological difficulty?
No. Conflation describes the merging of two similar things. A child may conflate a small number of sounds and be otherwise secure.
Does this only show up in the early stages of reading?
Conflation can be more obvious at the early stages of reading, but a tendency to merge similar sounding words that share contextual cues can show up in adolescence and linger into adulthood. Examples are: bought and brought; convection and conduction.
How would I notice this in class?
Listen carefully to the front edge of sounds as children read aloud. If they substitute a similar sounding word, they might not be guessing, but conflating the two words.
Does this mean phonics isn't working?
No. Phonics teaches the correspondences between phonemes and graphemes. Conflation shows a lack of awareness of the phonological differences between the sounds of similar sounding words that share the same context.
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