ABSTRACT
The fundamental issue is that the literacy and numeracy skills acquired before school are presymbolic, and that there is an essential discontinuity in what is taught at the point of transition to school. The preschool skills that are known to be important for learning to read include practical knowledge of stories and books, analytic language skills and a general awareness of print. The processes of becoming literate entail a shift from oral language to written text. These are multiple processes involving ‘owning’ and recognizing particular words, relating letter patterns to familiar sounds, and relating word patterns to particular stories.
