CHILDRENS LITERACY ENVIRONMENTS AND EARLY WORD RECOGNITION SUBSKILLS

First-grade children completed a battery of tasks that included standa rdized measures of word recognition and spelling, measures of phonolog ical and orthographic processing skill, and a short indicator of expos ure to print via home literacy experiences. Phonological and orthograp hic processing skill were separable components of variance in word rec ognition. Orthographic processing ability accounted for variance in wo rd recognition ability even after the variance in three phonological p rocessing measures had been partialed. Additionally, variance in ortho graphic processing ability not explained by phonological abilities was reliably linked to differences in print exposure. The print exposure measure was not, however, linked to the measures of phonological proce ssing. This finding was unexpected but it is consistent with some prev ious research. The theoretical implications of this result are discuss ed.