The development of phonological abilities and their relation to reading acquisition: Case studies of six Finnish children

The relation between phonological abilities and reading acquisition and the interindividual variation in the development of different phonological man ipulation skills were assessed for six 7-year-old Finnish nonreaders. Inten sive time series data were collected by following the children for 13 month s. Assessments were conducted every 4 weeks with five phonological manipula tion tests. The results indicated gradual progress at the group level. Howe ver, analysis of the individual profiles indicated large interindividual va riation in the rate of improvement and in the relation between different ma nipulation skills and reading acquisition.