The present study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature as the first study, to our knowledge, that has tested the hypothesis that weaknesses in representation-related phonological processing may underlie the difficulties in phonological awareness and reading that are demonstrated by children with SSDs.

Individual differences in abilities to form, access, and hone phonological representations of words are implicated in the development of oral and written language. This study addressed two important gaps in the literature concerning measurement of individual differences in phonological representation. First, we empirically examined the dimensionality of phonological representation abilities. Second, we empirically compared how well typical measures index various representation-related phonological processing abilities. Specifically, nine measures of accessibility to and distinctness of phonological presentations were administered to 175 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Confirmatory factor analysis validated three separate but correlated phonological processing abilities, i.e., efficiency of accessing phonological codes, precision of phonological codes as reflected in speech production, and precision of phonological codes as reflected in speech perception. The named phonological processing abilities were equally good measures of a secondorder phonological representation factor. While most prototypic measures were excellent indicators of first-order phonological abilities, they were only modest indicators of phonological representation.

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This study describes the dimensionality and continuum of Spanish phonological awareness (PA) skills in 3-to 6-year-old children. A 3 X 4 factorial design crossed word structure of test items (word, syllable, phoneme) mth task (blending multiple-choice, blending free-response, elision multiple-choice, elision free-response) to assess 12 PA skills. Over 1,200 Spanish speakers were assessed at 2 points in time. Confirmatory factor analyses found that a 2nd-order unifying ability along with lst-order task factors well explained children's perfomiances (comparative fit index = .96, Tucker-Lewis index = .96, root-mean-square error of approximation = .03). Confimiatory factor analysis also indicated that test items varied in difficulty and in how well they discriminated individual differences in latent PA. Item parameters were stable across item sets (rs = .75-86) and time (rs = .60-1.00), and ability estimates were moderately stable across time (r = .64). Einally, test information curves were used to describe the continuum of PA skills. Children were able to first detect blending of sound infomiation, then detect elision of sound infonnation, then blend sounds together to foim words, and finally delete sounds from words to fomi new words. Sequence of skill acquisition along the dimension of word structure was ambiguous. Implications for assessment, early intervention, and crosslinguistic theories of phonological awareness are discussed.Phonological awareness refers to the ability to reflect on the sounds in one's oral language, independent from meatiing. Examples of phonological awareness tasks include rhyming, judging