An instructional program that teaches decoding skills to learning disabled children was developed to serve as a supplement to whatever reading program is used in the classroom. As a result of task analysis, the program's instructional sequence begins with auditory tasks analyzing syllables and short words into phonemes, then blending these…

Several researchers have attempted to measure sequencing and integration in the decoding process in an effort to isolate some independent variables that may contribute to reading retardation, but most have measured the ability of children to manipulate nonverbal material. It is unclear whether nonverbal tests measure the same processes involved in…

The described teacher education course is designed for elementary school teachers seeking to develop skills for building decoding ability in their beginning reading students and students who need remedial help. An outline of the scope and sequence of topics is given as well as a description of activities and resources involved in the course.…

Studies the development of word-retrieval speed and its relationship to reading in 72 average and 11 severely impaired readers in kindergarten through the second grade. (HOD)

This study investigated the relationship of phonological awareness to learning to read. Australian first-grade children were tested for verbal intelligence, phonemic segmentation ability, and reading achievement. Path analysis revealed phonological awareness affected reading comprehension indirectly through phonological recoding. The development…

Achieving literacy, while often one of the greatest challenges a child can face, is one of the most important elements in building a base for success in education and in life. Three main strategies are found to be parts of the process of how children learn to read: (1) developing phonemic awareness through the use of phonics techniques; (2) being…

Used participant observation, child interviews, and teacher meetings to examine reading strategies that emerged in a first-grade, multiethnic, urban classroom over 20 weeks. Found that children used five reading strategies, including narrative storytelling, relying on memory, and word-for-word reading; tensions emerged between strategies that…

Reports on a content analysis of four popular first-grade basal series, examining decoding and comprehension instruction in teachers' manuals, student texts, workbooks, and supplementary activity packages. Reports that none of the programs present a balanced approach to teaching decoding and comprehension with very comprehensible stories. (MM)

Tests the hypothesis that differences between first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading and spelling profiles could be accounted for by lack of proficiency in the L2 or differences in orthographic complexity. Finds that neither of these explanations alone sufficed to explain the development of reading and spelling in the two languages…

In the research paper considered, Stahl and Miller compare the effectiveness of whole language/language experience programs versus basal reader approaches. The article is criticized for misrepresenting concepts related to emergent literacy and inadequately defining whole language, the lack of equivalence between the two nonbasal approaches, and…

A follow-up at the end of first grade examined effects of teaching five kindergarten teachers in general and special education classes to stimulate phonological manipulation skills such as blending and segmenting. For children with learning disabilities and mild mental retardation (but not for nondisabled children) the treatment continued to show…

Notes only a small number of widely-circulated studies are central to the idea that teachers should specifically teach phonemic awareness skills to young children. Shows that they selectively and misleadingly cite other studies out of context to support their argument and that their statistical procedures do not support their propositions. Offers…

A qualitative study followed slow-progress students as they engaged in embedded word studies in their classroom-based literacy activities. Issues addressed were: (1) the ways embedded word studies promoted slower-progress students' word knowledge; (2) how developing word knowledge influenced these students' reading and writing attempts; and (3)…

While previous studies have investigated children's awareness of two units within words--syllables and phonemes, there is experimental evidence that children are also aware of intrasyllabic units (units intermediate in size between the syllable and the phoneme), and that these units may be useful for teaching phonological awareness and reading.…

Based on emergent literacy research, two components of reading and writing--the morning message and the writing process--were developed in a laboratory school kindergarten by teacher-researcher collaboration and later disseminated to both public and private schools through a project conducted for the Kamehameha Schools, a private school in…