Phonological awareness as a posible "zone of proximal development" for initial reading

The concept of phonological awareness is presented, and its role as possible "zone of proximal development" (in Vygotski's terminology) for initial reading, is analyzed. The conceptualization is based on a large amount of research work that demostrated that there is a close relation between decoding and phonological development. There are positive effects of phonological mediation on early reading. Phonological interventions in kindergarten and first grade, may have a causal effect in learning to decode the written language.