Discussed is an oral reading procedure for children with reading problems which assesses a reader's competency through an analysis of comprehension evidenced by meaningful versus non-meaningful alterations to the reading text. It is explained that this analysis indicates that the poor reader's needs frequently may be at the syntactic and semantic…

This article considers the ramifications of early reading failure within the context of J. Chall's five-stage model of reading development: (1) initial decoding, (2) fluency, (3) reading for meaning, (4) relationships and viewpoints, and (5) synthesis. Instructional implications include learning disabled students' special need for good instruction…

Successful instructional strategies for enhancing the reading comprehension and comprehension test performance of learning disabled students are described. Students are taught to self-monitor their comprehension of expository materials and stories through recognition and analysis of recurrent elements and problem passages, content summarization,…

Concludes that modified standard reading inventories may be made more useful for assessing the specific abilities and needs of disabled readers. Offers suggestions for making modifications. (FL)

Learning disabled and behaviorally disordered third and fourth grade students were taught test taking skills such as attending to appropriate stimuli, marking answers carefully, using time well, and avoiding errors. These students scored significantly higher than their untrained peers on the Word Study Skills subtest of the Stanford Achievement…

Teachers can use microcomputers in informal assessment of learning disabled students' academic achievement, math and science progress, reading comprehension, cognitive processes, motivation and social interaction. Selected software for unobtrusive, informal assessment is listed. (CL)

Concludes that poor readers' comprehension of stories was improved by instruction that focused on causal structure, but that a few learners still struggling with basic decoding were too preoccupied to attend to story structure. (FL)

The effects of three instructional procedures on reading comprehension and word recognition were compared with 21 learning disabled elementary school students. No differences were found among treatment effects on comprehension and oral reading. (Author/SW)

The effect of the Read Aloud accommodation on the performances of learning disabled in reading (LD-R) and non-learning disabled (non LD) middle school students was studied using selected texts from the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (ITBS) achievement battery. Science, Usage and Expression, Math Problem Solving and Data Interpretation, and Reading…

Equal numbers of reading disabled children from each of three schools were assigned to treatment or control conditions. After ten group counseling sessions students in the treated groups showed significant increases in oral and reading vocabulary skills. Sentence comprehension was not improved by counseling. (Author)

LD and normal students were compared across the three grade levels on reading flexibility (i.e., the ability to vary reading speed according to their purposes for reading). LD students tended to become less flexible with additional years in school but did achieve better comprehension in grade 10. (SEW)

Describes development and testing of maze-like semantic maps for assessing reading comprehension of content-area information. Results involving 144 students (38 with learning disabilities) showed that maps could be produced and scored with high reliability. Criterion-related validity based on a standardized test was weak, but moderate-to-strong…