The study of young childrens emerging unique conceptualizations of the processes and elements involved in learning to read and write-herein called metalinguistic awareness-is now clearly international in scope. The specific aims of this volume areMoreThe study of young childrens emerging unique conceptualizations of the processes and elements involved in learning to read and write-herein called metalinguistic awareness-is now clearly international in scope. The specific aims of this volume are (a) foremost to discuss metalinguistic awareness within and contexts of both beginning reading and writing, something which has not been done previously- (b) to highlight important issues in the field including the causal relationship between spoken language awareness and the influence of print as well as effective instrumentation with which to measure metalinguistic knowledge- (c) to present evidence that children in non-English-speaking countries experience similar conceptual difficulties in analyzing their own language and script as do American youngsters- and (d) to demonstrate that alternative symbol systems, namely Braille and types of manual language, pose unique and equally challenging problems for visually- and hearing-impaired children learning how to read.