Bidirectional relations of phonological sensitivity and prereading abilities: evidence from a preschool sample

Children's phonological sensitivity is a strong predictor of the development of reading skills. Recent evidence indicates that phonological sensitivity and reading are reciprocally related. That is, phonological sensitivity facilitates the development of early reading and early reading facilitates the development of phonological sensitivity. Whereas evidence for this reciprocal relation has come from studies with school-age children, this study examined the relation between phonological sensitivity and letter knowledge in 97 middle-income 4- and 5-year-old children in a 1-year longitudinal study. Multiple regression analyses revealed that phonological sensitivity predicted growth in letter knowledge, and letter knowledge predicted growth in phonological sensitivity when controlling for children's age and oral language abilities. These results indicate that the reciprocal relation between reading and phonological sensitivity is present relatively early in the development of literacy skills, prior to the onset of formal reading instruction.