ABSTRACT
During the past 25 years, investigations that have focused on the relationship between speech and reading have provided critical insight into the factors that influence early reading ability. Specifically, the identification of deficits in phonological processing has helped explain the discrepancy between the ease with which most children acquire spoken language and the difficulty many of these same children have in learning to read (Brady & Shankweiler, 1991; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; I. Y. Liberman & Shankweiler, 1985; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). In response to overwhelming evidence that phonological processing plays such a central role in reading acquisition, many researchers have focused reading intervention studies on aspects of phonological processing, especially phonological awareness (see Blachman, 1994a, for a review).
