Identity matching of consonant-vowel-consonant words by prereaders

Using an identity matching-to-sample procedure, normally developing preread ers who matched individual letters with high accuracy (e.g., m and s) did n ot show high accuracy in matching three-letter printed words that differed only in the first letter (e.g., mad and sad). Teachers and researchers shou ld not assume thar children who can discriminate individual letters can als o discriminate minimally different words that contain those letters.