DEVELOPMENT OF READING-RELATED PHONOLOGICAL PROCESSING ABILITIES - NEW EVIDENCE OF BIDIRECTIONAL CAUSALITY FROM A LATENT VARIABLE LONGITUDINAL-STUDY

Results from a longitudinal correlational study of 244 children from k indergarten through 2nd grade indicate that young children's phonologi cal processing abilities are well-described by 5 correlated latent abi lities: phonological analysis, phonological synthesis, phonological co ding in working memory, isolated naming, and serial naming. These abil ities are characterized by different developmental rates and remarkabl y stable individual differences. Decoding did not exert a causal influ ence on subsequent phonological processing abilities, but letter-name knowledge did. Causal relations between phonological processing abilit ies and reading-related knowledge are bidirectional: Phonological proc essing abilities exert strong causal influences on word decoding; lett er-name knowledge exerts a more modest causal influence on subsequent phonological processing abilities.