PHONOLOGICAL SENSITIVITY AS A PROXIMAL CONTRIBUTOR TO PHONOLOGICAL RECODING SKILLS IN CHILDRENS READING

Because it permits self-teaching, phonological recoding (the efficient translation of letters or letter groups into sound) is arguably the k ey skill acquired in learning to read an alphabetic writing system. De ficits in this skill are the most common source of children's reading difficulties. In addition, poor readers tend to perform at a lower lev el than good readers on a wide variety of phonological processing task s. These findings have been widely interpreted as implying a latent ph onological processing ability as a distal cause of variation in readin g skill. Clearly, such an interpretation does not imply that all phono logical processing skills contribute directly to the phonological reco ding process. This paper outlines a series of studies conducted at the University of Queensland. This work consistently suggests that childr en's phonological sensitivity contributes more directly than other pho nological processing abilities to the development of phonological reco ding skills.