Teaching a child to read is one of the greatest gifts we can give to that individual and to society as a whole, and yet many students exit school without the necessary literacy skills. For decades, research has demonstrated the importance of phonemic awareness in the development of the alphabetic principle, a prerequisite for competent reading, along with laying the foundation for more complex reading tasks; acquiring phonemic awareness is imperative for successful literacy development. Unfortunately, many students lack the necessary phonemic awareness skills to become competent readers. Extensive research exists pertaining to the development of phonemic awareness in emergent readers, but much less research is available regarding phonemic awareness development in older, struggling readers. The purpose of this study was to extend the research by exploring the effects of word box instruction, a research-based intervention designed to promote phonemic awareness, on the phonological, reading, and spelling skills of two groups of students: three kindergartners at risk for reading failure, and five fifth graders struggling with reading and spelling (i.e., treatment resisters). A further extension of the research was the use of nonsense words throughout the study. Concurrent interventions, utilizing a multiple probe across three phonemic awareness skills design that was sequentially replicated across subjects (Tawney & Gast, 1984), was implemented to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Results demonstrated a functional relation between the word box instruction and increases in all eight students' ability to segment and develop phoneme-grapheme relationships, along with demonstrated improvements in spelling and reading skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]