Discusses the relationship of cognitive development or thinking skills to language development and beginning reading. (MKM)

The child approaching reading for the first time comes well-equipped with developmental tools to lighten the task. Linguistically speaking, in addition to some decoding skills, the child has a full-blown syntactic system consisting of the basic syntactic forms, though some of the more intricate forms will not be mastered until much later.…

The extended effects of two instructional approaches, the Coordinated Basal Language Arts Approach and the Integrated Experience Approach to Communication, on pupils' language development at the second- and third-grade levels were investigated. Original subjects were 669 first graders who were pretested for readiness and intelligence. Of these,…

Descriptions of language learning and reading behaviors are presented, in this paper, within the context of a model of cognitive processing that reflects a continuum for the logical procession of language skills in human maturation and learning. Portions of the paper differentiate silent and oral reading in terms of cognitive load, which is a…

A supplemental reading program designed to increase basic reading vocabulary was implemented as a practicum project with first-grade students demonstrating deficiencies in reading. The students were assigned to teams (organized according to alphabetized lists of topics generated by the students) to write, illustrate, and read books cooperatively…

A study was conducted to determine the feasibility of using oral story making experiences to improve the oral language proficiencies and "sense of story" of fourth grade remedial reading students through select literary experiences. These experiences included exposing the students to literature in read-aloud exercises, and using wordless…

Describes strategies which teachers can model to help their students become cognitively aware of language. Suggests that teachers model writing and reading strategies at the same time they demonstrate word processing functions. (MG)

A child's language reflects his thought processes and his level of development. Motor, emotional, and language development all have a direct relationship to the child's cognitive functioning--each follows the pattern of moving from gross and loosely differentiated states to refined and differentiated systems. Research in early childhood education…