This paper argues that the ability to rapidly compare phonemes is a primary sensory-cognitive function underlying self-correction in word recognition and spelling and thus, indirectly, reading comprehension. Such phonological defects can be addressed both preventively and remedially using procedures that are fundamentally different from typical…

Twenty children (grades 4 through 7) with reading disabilities participated in 16 one-hour individual tutorials over a one-month period with instruction for half the group including structural analysis and alphabet principle training without structural analysis. Children in both groups improved reliably and equally in reading and related measures.…