The ability to read fluently for meaning depends primarily on rapid, automatic decoding and recognition at the level of the single word. Efforts should be directed at explicitly and systematically teaching the connection between these phonological rules and the written word. A phonics emphasis provides advantages for disabled readers over a Whole Language approach. There are as many girls as boys with reading difficulty. Reading failure has far-reaching consequences.
Phonological processing is independent of intelligence.
Phonological skill is both inherited and learned. Children may not benefit from phonics instruction until they have rudimentary phoneme awareness. The role of context in word recognition Poor readers overrely on context because letter-sound knowledge is weak Context allows us to decode accurately only one word. The content words in a passage tend to be less common. Characteristics of poor and novice readers Overreliance on context and guessing Limited phoneme awareness.