This study examined the effects of age and reading instruction on phonological learning and early literacy skills. The researchers administered dynamic and static phoneme awareness tasks, as well as measures of word reading, letter-sound knowledge, and letter naming to three groups of children varying in age and school experience. Results showed large effects of reading instruction on phoneme awareness and literacy skills. An age effect was also found, with older children performing better than younger peers on phoneme awareness and early literacy, even when schooling was controlled for. The dynamic phoneme task was a better predictor of later literacy than the static task and showed learning potential as well as current skills.