Reading aloud and training in phonemic awareness have been promoted as two ways to increase children's reading ability. Reading aloud encourages children to find pleasure in reading and use literature to aid in learning. Children with early awareness of individual sounds in words, called phonemes, and the ability to manipulate them are more likely to become good readers. Using a multiple baseline across subjects design, the present study compared two preschool age children, matched on age, reading experience, and a pretest measure, during reading aloud and specific strategies targeted at training phonemic awareness. The training program was "Ladders to Literacy" and the children's progress was monitored using the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Four DIBELS measures, Letter Naming Fluency (LNF), Sound Naming Fluency (SNF), Initial Phoneme Ability (IPA), and Phonemic Segmentation Ability (PSA) were used. Results showed that following training, each child's performance on SNF, IPA, and PSA improved; performance on LNF varied. Conclusions and future research are discussed. Contains 54 references, and a table and 6 figures of data. Appendixes contain a questionnaire and 16 lessons. (Author/RS)