Abstract
This article reviews the evidence pertaining to intensity for phonemic awareness intervention for preschoolers and kindergartners with language impairment. The nature of phonemic awareness instruction is considered, including which phonemic awareness skills should be explicitly taught, how to structure these skills into teaching episodes, and how treatment dosage can be determined. Findings pertaining to intensity were extracted from controlled treatment studies on children with typical achievement, low achievement, and language impairment. The state of evidence for treatment intensity has significant gaps, but a tentative conclusion is that 10-20 hr of instruction, delivered as a combination of classroom lessons and supplementary intervention, can enable children with language impairment to achieve the phonemic awareness skills needed for reading and spelling.