Preschool foundations of early reading acquisition.

The present paper describes research on the skills and processes associated with word and text reading acquisition in preschool children and during the first years of school. The aim is to provide an overview that gives a sense of the important milestones in language and literacy acquisition. A comparison of children's performances against these milestones may thus guide effective intervention for health professionals, parents and other professionals. Also summarized and explored are the role of speech perception and production, grammatical and syntactic skills, and metacognitive skills, including phonological awareness.