This article discusses language comprehension and developing skills with emergent readers, in particular verbal reasoning and language structures, that are necessary for later reading comprehension.

Young children's engagement with digital tools (e.g., tablets, smartphones, ebooks/storyapps, and mobile apps) is increasing globally. This is inevitable in our digital world. Even though children primarily use digital technology for entertainment purposes, these tools offer valuable learning opportunities too. Importantly, adults can provide and…

In this book, the author challenges reductive views of emergent literacy prevalent in many of today's kindergarten and pre-K classrooms. As an alternative, Lysaker explains how reading wordless books with young children helps them to develop a range of comprehension abilities that are important for understanding narrative texts. Readers will find…

This review focuses on interventions or practices designed to help children in kindergarten through third grade learn to develop skills that are considered foundational to developing solid reading abilities. The following research question guides this review: "Which instructional practices improve beginning readers' foundational reading…

For all students, a high-quality early education is critical to ensuring their long-term academic success. Early learners need to understand why people read and write in order to be motivated to excel in their own literacy development. Through active engagement in the reading process, children learn ways to use their growing knowledge and skills…

For future literacy teachers just beginning their professional education, nothing's more important than the first core text that builds their foundation for classroom success. That's why every preservice teacher should start with this introductory reading textbook, ideal for teaching fundamental literacy skills to students in pre-K-Grade 6. Based…

Outlines a psycholinguistic framework for reading and spelling methodology at the preliminary stage. Based on the theory of metalinguistic development of A. Karmiloff-Smith and J. Gombert, the framework involves a three-step model for early reading and spelling instruction. The approach balances focus on meaning with focus on skill. (SLD)

Environmental print activities provide students' families with an integrative way to encourage reading. While in the grocery store recently, the author watched two young girls begging their mother to stop as they pointed to their "favorite" snack on the shelf. They were about five years old and probably couldn?t read yet, but they knew exactly…

Information processing theory suggests that sublexical fluency skills are important to word reading development, but there are few supportive data. This study investigated if sublexical fluency (letter name fluency, letter sound fluency, and phoneme segmentation fluency) contributed to the development of word reading and spelling in 92…

A total communication program was introduced to enhance the communication skills of 8 students, age 11-14, with severe and moderate retardation. The method gradually developed into a successful introductory reading program, with instruction focused on sight vocabulary and comprehension skills. (JDD)

Jumpstart, a homegrown before-school tutoring program piloted at a Massachusetts school, has proven successful with at-risk first graders. Implemented as a low-cost alternative to Reading Recovery and Success for All programs, the 18-week action-research project employed 11 inclusion and Title I aides as volunteers. (MLH)

This document describes a literacy project in rural Ecuador using a modified version of Sylvia Ashton Warner's language experience approach. This method allows learners to approach written culture on their own terms by learning words important to their life, then transferring these works to sentences and stories. The approach reduces the rural…