ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the concepts covered in the preceding chapters of this book. The book suggests a different interpretation of the relationship between deprivation and reading. It focuses on the generally accepted point that a lack of clarity in understanding may be associated either with deprivation of experience of literacy in the home, or with a more pervasive cognitive vagueness which is reflected generally in a child's conversation and performance in tasks in school. The book is concerned with its developmental tracing of possible tacit and partial knowledge of orthography and of the use of sounding in reading. It discusses how phonics should be taught, and it may be that the concept of orthographic competence helpful in assessing them. The book explains that it is worth attending to children's understanding of literate behaviour both before and during the school years, this being a much more complex matter than reading to them.
