Abstract
A group of reading disabled children were compared with a control group on a battery of cognitive tests. Following each test, the children were asked to rate their own performance relative to how they thought other children of their own age would perform. The ratings showed that the reading disabled children had a surprisingly accurate awareness of their own deficits. It was concluded that this self-knowledge derived from the recognition of an operation common to reading (or perhaps spelling) and the tests on which they performed badly. Both the performance and the rating data provided a reasonable fit with the hypothesis that this operation involved phonological patterning or sound-blending.