Describes research results showing that letter-name knowledge does not aid the beginning reader in pronouncing words composed of the same letters. Suggests that letter-sound knowledge does have a beneficial effect. Bibliography. (RW)

A laboratory and a classroom study were conducted to determine if verbal association learning would be facilitated by visual discrimination training. Kindergarten children who could not recognize the letters used were the subjects for both studies. In the laboratory study, 90 subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group (E) which got…