Discusses the maturational, behaviorist and cognitive or psycholinguistic views of reading readiness. Describes a teaching strategy of "assisted reading," derived from the cognitive, psycholinguistic view. (BF)

Describes a study to determine the effects of visual perception training on beginning first-grade reading achievement with children diagnosed as being deficient in visual perceptual skills and potential reading problems. (JM)

Children's drawings provide a natural introduction to reading and writing. (JM)

Examples of the awareness of young children of printed information they have gained informally are used to demonstrate some of the important knowledge that children bring to beginning reading and writing. Teachers need to encourage exploratory reading and writing experiences. (Author/DB)

Attempts to justify the place of real books in the beginning reading curriculum, and to suggest teaching strategies for the development of a multi-cue approach to reading. (RS)

Suggestions are offered to parents of hearing-impaired children of ways to develop literacy skills. Recommendations include reading to the child, helping the child begin to interpret print, encouraging functional literacy, and helping the child develop strategies for understanding textbooks. (DB)

The study evaluated the relative effectiveness of three variations of a computer program designed to increase the sight-word reading vocabulary of 17 learning-disabled children in grades 1,2, and 3. No differences among the visual-only, the visual-auditory, or auditory-only presentation modes were observed. (Author/DB)

Considers impact of print awareness on young children learning to read and developing metalinguistic understandings about written and oral language and literacy. Particularly emphasized are the developmental stages of beginning reading, which are supported by a review of research studies and suggest appropriate program content for initial reading…

This article pinpoints eight specific areas where tutors of adult beginning readers need support. It describes the background related to each need or concern, clarifies these needs and concerns, and identifies related potential solutions. The eight areas include tutor isolation, leadership, matching tutor and learner, social network, and lack of…

Presents a joint statement by various educational associations of concerns about present practices in pre-first grade reading instruction and offers recommendations for improvement. (Author/BB)

Presents four experiments comparing the perceptual span in second-, fourth-, and sixth-grade readers and skilled adult readers. Suggests that the size of perceptual span is variable and influenced by text difficulty. Concludes that the size of perceptual span does not cause slow reading rates in beginning readers. (Author/DR)

This study developed an inventory that could be used to assess adult beginning readers' attitudes toward reading in the three attitudinal dimensions of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors and in five reading situations identified by a sample of adult beginning readers. Suggested uses for the inventory were generated. (Author/CH)

A survey of 44 residential schools for the visually impaired identified the most widely used reading approach (basal reader), most prevalent standardizd acheivement test (Stanford Achievement Test), and the formal procedure used most frequently to determine grade level of printed materials (Fry Formula). (Author/CL)

Language analysis tasks (segmentation and rhyming) and rapid automatized naming tasks (objects, colors, and letters) were found to tap different linguistics-processing components in both kindergarteners and first graders. Children who could analyze letter names were more likely to be among the better readers at the end of first grade. (Author/BS)

Suggests 10 classroom-tested activities that improve reading comprehension. (DF)