Patterns of possible relationships between phonological recoding skill and three conceptually distinct aspects of reading are considered. The analysis draws attention to two complicating factors; first, the possibility that the different patterns of possible relationships may apply differentially across beginning readers of varying skill levels, and second, that beginning reading programs designed to facilitate the development of phonological recoding skill may differ enormously on several instructional dimensions. The paper concludes with a description of a study of the Reading Recovery program in which aspects of four of these dimensions were investigated. Results indicate that systematic instruction in phonological recoding skill is more effective than incidental instruction; that the inclusion of direct instruction in phonological recoding skill yields better results than relying on writing activities as the primary means of developing knowledge of the alphabetic code; and that a metacognitive approach to code instruction that exploits the use of phonograms can be a very effective intervention strategy for at-risk readers.