ABSTRACT
There is a great deal of evidence that phonological awareness is a prerequisite forreadinganalphabeticorthography(McCardle,Scarborough,&Catts,2001; NICHDEarlyChildCareResearchNetwork,2005;Scarborough,1998,2005; Walley,Metsala,&Garlock,2003).Phonologicalawarenessatthelevelofthe phoneme,theaspectmostrelevanttolearningtorecognizewordsinprint,does not develop spontaneously, but depends on speciˆc learning and instruction (e.g.,Byrne,1998;Goswami,2002).Otheraspectsofphonologicalawareness, suchasrhymesensitivityandtheassociatedfactorofphonologicalmemory,do developspontaneouslyinpreschoolchildren,butthenatureoftheirrelationship tophonemeawarenessandreadingreadinessisnotclear.Moreover,connections between phonological awareness in preschool and school-aged children and the earlyphonologicalsensitivitiesofinfantsandtoddlershavenotbeensystematicallystudied.Further,therearesizablegapsinourunderstandingofrelationships betweenearlypreliteratephonologicalsensitivities,individualvariationinvocabulary development, and language development more generally.
