The development of phonological abilities and their relation to reading acquisition: case studies of six Finnish children.

The relation between phonological abilities and reading acquisition and the interindividual variation in the development of different phonological manipulation skills were assessed for six 7-year-old Finnish nonreaders. Intensive time series data were collected by following the children for 13 months. Assessments were conducted every 4 weeks with five phonological manipulation tests. The results indicated gradual progress at the group level. However, analysis of the individual profiles indicated large interindividual variation in the rate of improvement and in the relation between different manipulation skills and reading acquisition.