Suggests that the sex and socioeconomic status of first grade students have little influence on their reading attitudes. (FL)

Describes Cuba's preschool reading readiness program, which emphasizes phonemic analysis. (AEA)

In two experiments, a short-term recognition memory task that varied the number of letters distinguishing target and comparison stimuli was used to assess the ability of prereaders and beginning readers to utilize graphic information in a three-letter graphic pattern. (HOD)

Results of a study in which first graders learned ten unfamiliar function words in two different formats indicated that sentence readers learned more about the syntactic and semantic identities of function words, whereas list readers remembered their orthographic identities better and could pronounce the words faster and more accurately in…

The scores of 60 first graders on the Concepts about Print Test (Sand) indicated that above-average readers were superior to below-average readers in print-direction concepts, letter-word concepts, and advanced concepts about print. (Author/MKM)

The study involving 63 children (6 to 8 years old) compared the effects of two reading programs, the Palo Alto Reading Program and DISTAR, on primary grade children with reading problems. Results indicated that use of an operant reading program (DISTAR) was more effective than the Palo Alto program. (SBH)

Results of a New Zealand survey showed that parents were interested in their children's reading progress but were not aware of the teaching strategies they could use to reinforce school learning. (GT)

Current theories about teaching children to read overemphasize use of the left brain hemisphere. Children with a right-hemisphere dominance are likely to experience difficulties unless reading experiences are planned which capitalize on right-brain characteristics: divergent thinking and creative activities, hands-on experiences, and free reading.…

Describes the development of an instrument that identifies what children who are just beginning first grade reading instruction know about the written language code and relates this knowledge to beginning reading achievement. (HOD)

The effectiveness of two approaches for teaching beginning sight words to 30 trainable mentally retarded students (mean age=148 months) was compared. (Author/SBH)

The development of four-year-old children's knowledge of letters and printed words was studied to determine if preschool children begin reading, and if so, how. A natural hierarchy of knowledge was noted. (MKM)

Explores children's ability to segment utterances into syllables and phonemes, and their skills in the recall of sentences of low and high complexity. (HOD)

Reports an investigation of the relationship between visual ordering and perception as determined by cognitive tasks and a child's understanding of reading readiness concepts. (FL)

Discusses the hazards that the English language contains for children learning to read, reports the Bullock Report's recommendation to judge I.T.A. on its merits, and describes research findings suggesting that the probability of reading failure is considerably greater when T.O. is used than when I.T.A. is used. (GT)

Describes a method of beginning reading instruction that makes use of stories (such as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears") already known by children, and cites research studies that provide support for such a method. (GT)