The second edition of Sound Practice looks afresh at how young children can be helped to discover basic facts about an alphabetic spelling system, within the context of their developing spoken language. It examines why children might fail to understand letter-sound links; the origins of severe and persistent difficulties with achieving functional literacy skills; and developmental processes underpinning the areas of learning identified in national initiatives for promoting children's learning. The book also discusses the need for differentiation strategies to respond to individual children's learning needs within national initiatives, and techniques and approaches that can be effectively applied to fulfil curriculum objectives. Phonological awareness is the key to independent literacy and must be explicitly tackled in the classroom in order to promote early reading and writing and to address written language difficulties in older children. This book is a suitable resource for initial and in-service training for teachers and teaching assistants and includes photocopiable worksheets.