ABSTRACT
Phonological awareness and knowledge about letters are both important for learning to read and spell, but less is known about the development of letter knowledge than about the development of phonological awareness. This chapter reviews the research on young children’s knowledge about the visual forms, names, and sounds of letters, showing that it involves more than rote memorization. The chapter begins by considering children’s early knowledge about the visual characteristics of writing and the phonological characteristics of letter names. The discussion then turns to children’s knowledge about the written word that is most important to them, their own first name, and how children’s learning of their name influences their knowledge about the letters within it. I also examine how chil-dren use their early acquired knowledge about the names of letters, in conceit with their phonological skills, to make inferences about the letters’ sounds. Children’s knowledge of letter names and sounds, it is argued, helps them form preliminary connections between print and speech. These connections are not sufficient for skilled reading of English, a system that requires more than simple letter-sound correspondences, but they help children take their first steps toward mastery of the writing system.
