This paper reports a study exploring the associations between measures of two levels of phonological representation: recognition (epi-linguistic) and production (metalinguistic) tasks, and very early reading and writing skills. Thirty-eight pre-reading Ottawa-area children, aged 4-5 years, named environmental print (EP), wrote their own name, identified correct names and EP words amongst foils and detected foil letters within EP and names. Results showed that phonological awareness and letter-sound knowledge were not related to EP recognition. Name writing accuracy and name identification were related to both levels of phonological awareness. Furthermore, name writing showed a unique association with phonological awareness even after letter-sound knowledge was controlled statistically. Pre-readers may first use meta-linguistic phonological awareness in their name writing and identification prior to learning to read.

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