Key messages

Teachers and practitioners need to understand:

• the new conceptual framework, the 'simple view of reading'
• the cognitive processes involved in the development of both accurate word recognition skills and language comprehension
• the fact that children may not necessarily show equal performance or progress in each dimension.

Teachers need to be aware that:

• careful assessment of children's performance and progress in each dimension will help them to identify children's learning needs and guide further teaching
• different kinds of teaching are needed to develop word recognition skills from those that foster the comprehension of written and spoken language.