LINGUISTIC AWARENESS AND EARLY READING

Children from five Year 1 classes (n = 129) were assessed with the Concepts About Print (CAP) Test and standardized reading measures. A principal component score derived from the South‐gate Word Selection Test and the ACER Primary Reading Survey Test Level AA was used to derive three groups of readers (poor, average, good). A factor analysis of the CAP indicated four clusters of items. Three of these, letter‐word concepts (.77), print direction concepts (.39) and age (.32), were found to load on a significant discriminant function separating the three groups. Univariate procedures revealed that print direction concepts, letter‐word concepts and advanced print concepts significantly separated the three groups of readers but book orientation did not. Results were discussed in relation to the validity and reliability of the CAP, the relevance of linguistic awareness skills to early reading and the need to tie instruction to concept learning.