and verbal reasoning abilities to understand messages
conveyed through print. At the same time, it recognizes that children also
must develop code-related skills: an understanding that spoken words are composed
of smaller elements of speech (phonological awareness), the idea that
letters represent these sounds (the alphabetic principle), and the knowledge
that there are systematic correspondences between sounds and spellings.
But to attain a high level of skill, young children need many opportunities to
develop these strands interactively, not in isolation