This project examines the effectiveness of a specific educational software program in helping to strengthen the phonemic manipulation skills in emergent readers. Previous research specific to the use of computer-assisted instruction in training phonemic awareness skills has shown, with significant results, that phoneme manipulations skills can be taught using computers.

The software program being evaluated was created by the researcher and was field-tested by the researcher's kindergarten class. It underwent a statistical analysis to see if the use of this program led to a significant increase in students' phoneme manipulation skills. The students were administered a pre-test and post-test before and after using the software program. A paired sample t-test did not show a significant difference between the pre-test and the post-test scores. Findings obtained most likely resulted because of the research design chosen for this project. Future research will strengthen the present design as well as make changes to the software for the next revision cycle.