ABSTRACT
A few more comments about the term phonological awareness and what it means in behavioural terms. As P. E. Bryant points out, the normal child learns to identify an increasing number of visual and acoustical patterns as meaningful units. Test outcomes revealed that sound deletion tasks were most difficult for first-grade children, less difficult for second and third graders and not at all demanding for most children beyond fourth grade. Most six-year-old children appear to be able to start to comprehend and use a system, given adequate time, appropriate experiences, and the good luck to be born with an intact neuromotor system that enables them to exercise their innate capacity to seek order in their sensory environment. Such children arrive at their first reading lesson with adequate: language skills understanding of the subject matter addressed in their reading texts; and familiarity with most of the printed letters and the conventions that govern their use.
