Reversals in poor and normal second-grade readers were studied in relation to their whole phonological error pattern in reading real words and nonsense syllables. Error categories included sequence and orientation reversals, other consonants, vowels, and total error. Reversals occurred in quantity only in poor readers, with large individual differences. Overall error pattern was similar for good and poor readers. The two types of reversals were uncorrelated in poor readers, therefore not reflecting a single process. No aspect of the error patterns was found to be correlated with cerebral dominance assessed by an auditory rivalry technique. More errors occurred on nonsense syllables than on real words, but the error pattern was similar, suggesting that errors reflect phonological structure more than meaning. Since confusions among reversible letters presented in isolation occurred infrequently, their optical properties cannot be solely responsible for their confusions in reading. Comparisons of substitutions in the real word and nonsense lists support this conclusion. Reading of individual syllables was highly correlated with paragraph reading, suggesting that the beginning reader's problems are more concerned with synthesis of phonological segments than with strategies for scanning connected text. Tables and a bibliography are included. (Author/VJ)