This article focuses on assessment and diagnosis of phonological coding problems in young children. Phonological coding is defined as the representation of information about the sound structure of verbal stimuli in memory. Phonological coding deficits are tightly linked to difficulties in acquiring early word-reading skills. The task most widely used to assess phonological coding difficulties in disabled readers has been memory span for items like digits, words, or letters. However, naming-rate or simple articulation-rate tasks may provide more sensitive measures of coding difficulties. We propose that the best measure of phonological coding difficulties may be a combination of tasks currently being developed.
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