In this review, we re-assess the evidence that phonological awareness represents a skill specific to spoken language that precedes and directly influences the process of reading acquisition. Longitudinal and experimental training studies are examined in detail, as these are considered most appropriate for exploring a causal hypothesis of this…

Illiterate adults could neither delete nor add a phone at the beginning of a non-word; but these tasks were performed by people who learned to read rudimentarily as adults. Awareness of speech as a sequence of phones is thus not attained spontaneously but is probably provided by learning to read. (Author/CP)

These are findings of theoretical interest from: (i) follow-up of a case study of a precocious reader; and (ii) normally developing readers who served as comparison groups. The precocious reader was first reported when 2-3 years of age (Cognition 74 (2000) 177). From 3 to 7 years of age her precocious reading development continued, her word…