Describes a stage structure concern for children and phonics. Discusses that among all of the cognitive concepts and abilities constructed by young children, quantitative operations are most closely associated with early successful use of phonics. (JK)

The primary goal of early reading instruction, according to this paper, should be to teach children to comprehend written discourse in a manner similar to that for oral discourse because both types of discourse require decoding ability--graphic or acoustic. The paper asserts that to simply design reading instruction to achieve the subgoal of…