Summary.If cues in redundant sources are cross‐related it is often possible to detect that an error has been made. Evidence of self‐correction behaviour in 5‐year‐old beginning readers is presented and the interpretation is made that an efficient information‐processing strategy is developed by children who make good progress in learning to read. That such a strategy could be developed by young children at a stage of intuitive rather than logical thinking is best explained in terms of Neisser's concept of multiple thought processes which he considers appropriate for dealing with novel, irregula