ABSTRACT
In this chapter, I offer an evaluation of the role that phonological factors play in reading acquisition and reading disability. The empirical bases for the exercise are both recent and not so recent, drawing on experimental studies by me and others that were completed some time ago, and from behavior-genetic studies of early literacy growth that are still ongoing. Together, the studies underpin four claims: (a) phonological factors play a role in explaining why, for all learners, learning to read and write is more challenging than learning to listen and talk; (b) factors based on morphology also may explain why learning to read challenges all children; (c) phonological factors, in the form of a phonological deˆcit, may be behind some children’s continuing difˆculty in learning to read, but they are not the only factors, and may be more minor than commonly accepted; and (d) factors based in learning processes also may explain special problems some children have in learning to read.
