Illustrates a strategic-process perspective toward reading skill development, discusses cognitive research related to early reading processes, and relates the perspective to a variety of research on the early reading period (grades one to six). (JM)

Two studies involved 21 reading disabled elementary students grouped as either dysphonetics (characterized by nonphonetic spelling errors) or dyseidetic readers (characterized by spelling words according to sound rather than appearance). Cognitive strategy differences were noted in visual sequential memory. Findings emphasized the importance of an…

A study compared a parallel distributed processing (PDP) model with a more traditional symbolic information processing model that accounts for early reading acquisition by human subjects. Two experimental paradigms were simulated. In one paradigm (a "savings" paradigm) subjects were divided into two groups and trained with two sets of…

Designed to measure children's abilities to synthesize concepts from several sources, this measure is based on the assumptions that children move from the concrete to the abstract, from specific to generic, and that the ability to synthesize and form new concepts is an important prerequisite to reading comprehension. Each form of the test is…

While semantic development has been alleged to proceed slowly, reading instruction begins early in the child's school career. Yet, little research has been addressed toward understanding how beginning readers extract meaning from the printed word. This paper reports two experiments that measured latencies in a picture-word interference task to…

An educational psychologist discusses the problems children encounter in comprehending the written word. (JD)

Reviews research pertaining to metalinguistic awareness in young children; examines issues related to the direction of cause between metalinguistic abilities and reading, disparities in research methodology between studies, and commercial instruments perporting to measure metalinguistic knowledge; and offers implications for reading instruction…

Drawing from research on reading, this paper suggests various methods of stimulating cognition in beginning readers. Defining cognition as the process by which a person gains knowledge, or understands or comprehends, discussion in the paper centers on the following topics: (1) perceptive and cognitive skills; (2) prior experience; (3) knowledge of…

A review of the research stresses the importance of language skills to beginning reading. (JH)

In this article the stages of learning how to read are outlined, and successful methods of teaching reading are described. (JD)

The primary focus of this paper is on black children and the relationship between their productive and receptive language competencies. The solutions which have been proposed to solve the dilemma of black pupils' poor reading achievement are discussed. It is noted that none of the proposed solutions has the unqualified support provided by a mass…

The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationships among five measures of aided reading comprehension (reading to each subject while he silently reads or follows along), intelligence, and three measures of cognitive style variables in first grade children. Thirty-four first graders, 13 boys and 21 girls, served as subjects. It was…

Explains new research findings about how children learn letter-sound correspondences, relates the findings to whole-language reading instruction, and outlines a theory for how children acquire the letter-sound system without direct instruction in phonics. Describes recent findings on phonological processes involved in learning letter-sound…

Asserts that it is important to develop a fast rate of reading, discusses how children remain slow readers for years after they have learned about letters and sounds, argues that there is no need for even a beginning reader to read slowly, and proposes some methods to improve reading. (Author/JM)

Considers whether the development of reading skills in different orthographies varies primarily as a function of common underlying cognitive processes, or as a function of orthographic transparency. Concludes that when the script is less complex young children appear to develop their word recognition skills with relative ease, even in the absence…