According to Stanovich (2009), phonological awareness is the conscious access to the phonemic level of the speech stream and the ability to cognitively manipulate representations at this level. It is the primary specific mechanism determining early success in reading, sharing a strong causal link with reading acquisition.

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

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A key factor in determining a child's level of reading achievement is the amount of reading experience. More reading experience contributes to vocabulary growth, and vocabulary development facilitates reading comprehension, an example of reciprocal causation. This reciprocal causation leads to the rise of Matthew effects: children who have strong vocabularies and reading skills read more, and continue to improve their vocabularies/reading skills, whereas children with weak vocabularies and poorer reading skills will read less, hindering the development of their vocabularies/reading skills.

Reciprocal Causation in Reading Achievement underlies Matthew Effects

- children with high innate verbal aptitudes who have enriching environments have two extra advantages, helping to advance their reading level
- children with low innate verbal aptitudes who come from disadvantaged backgrounds have two disadvantages stacked against them, causing them to fall further behind  


Matthew Effect-effect of environment on reading ability 

Organism-environment correlations occur when an organism selectively shapes its environment and, in turn, is affected by the environment's response. These correlations impact reading experiences in two primary ways:

*   **Active correlations:** Children actively seek out environments that improve their reading, such as choosing reading as a hobby over sports or asking parents for books as presents.
*   **Passive correlations:** A relationship between the organism and environment that is not due to the organism's active selection. For example, some children may be genetically inclined to be good readers, or their early school environments (which they typically cannot select) may greatly affect their reading experiences.

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