In the past fi fteen years there has been a growi ng interest in the development of children's awareness of language as an object in itself -- a phenomenon now generally referred to as metal inguistic awareness. Until the publication of an earlier volume in the Springer Series in Language and Communication, The Chitd's Conoeption oi Language, edited by A. Sinclair, R. J. Jarvella, and W. J. M. Levelt, there had been no systematic treatment of metalinguistic awareness. The major goal of that volume was to map out the field of study by describing the phenomenon of interest and defining major theoretical issues. The aim of the present volume is to present an overview of metalinguistic awareness in children which reflects the current state of research and theory. The volume is divided into three major sections. The first considers various conceptual and methodological issues that have arisen from efforts to study metalinguistic awareness. It addresses such questions as what is metalinguistic awareness, when does it begin to emerge, and what tasks and procedures can be employed to assess its development in young children. The second sect ion cri ti ca 11y revi ews the research that has been conducted i nto the four general types of metalinguistic awareness -- phonologieal, word, syntactic, and pragmatic awareness. In the final section the development of metalinguistic awareness is examined in relation to general cognitive development, reading acquisition, bilingualism, and early childhood education.

There has, in recent years, been a revolution in our understanding of children's minds. The result of that fundamental rethinking is shown here in essays which range systematically across the varied aspects of children's cognitive development.Central to this recasting of developmental psychology has been the realization that young children's abilities have frequently been underestimated. In trying to discover what a child understands or is capable of, we need to consider the whole child and to try to see situations from the child's point of view. Nor should we underestimate the difficulties that children encounter in formal education. These were the lessons contained in the work of Margaret Donaldson, whose influence pervades this book, and to whom it is dedicated.Understanding Children reflects on the development of children's minds - their abilities to understand language and to communicate: to explain events in the world: to read, write and draw: to deal with computers: to think, perceive and to gain awareness. It is inspired by the work of a psychologist whose writings have inspired and illuminated many thousands of students, teachers and academics throughout the world.