Provides 11 annotations from the ERIC database of recent reports and conference papers that address the relationship of phonics to beginning reading. (MG)

Compares early reading recollections of 32 proficient and 30 remedial adult readers. Finds significant differences regarding their perceptions that would be important for prevention and intervention of reading difficulties, including age when learned to read, where they leaned to read (home or school), most important person in early reading…

Argues for a reevaluation of the unexamined, unacknowledged assumption that narrative or story is primary--that children's abilities to understand and compose stories precede their capabilities to understand and use nonstory, informational written language. Finds that children were just as successful in reenacting the information books as they…

Debates the question of how automaticity in reading develops. Suggests that the traditional view of automaticity development (a result of limited attentional capacity) does not adequately describe the process. Discusses comparisons of alternative views of automaticity and the traditional view. (RS)

Forty-seven children (ages 4-6) with language handicaps were assigned to receive training in 1 of 3 categories of phonological tasks (rhyming, blending, and segmenting) or a control group. Subjects made significant progress in each experimental category but demonstrated little or no generalization within a category or between categories.…

Describes the positive experiences of veteran teachers who have switched from basal reading to the whole language approach. (PRA)

Presents 10 annotations of reports, conference papers, and research summaries published in 1988 and 1989 concerning the many roles parents play in the acquisition and development of language and literacy of their children. (RS)

Suggests a schema for school personnel interested in planning for the implementation of a Reading Recovery program. Emphasizes that Reading Recovery is a system of intervention, not a bag of tricks or quickie methods. Describes the nature of full implementation, its importance, and how to plan for it. (RS)

Discusses how the authors collaborated to develop a literacy curriculum, using environmental print, for a public school prekindergarten program for at-risk four year olds. (MG)

Considers the prospects and need for a psychologically plausible connectionist model of the development of word recognition skills. Emphasizes the importance of phonological skills as precursors and facilitators of learning to read. Argues that it may be possible to develop a connectionist model which will be more consistent with evidence from…

Suggests placing phonological awareness in the context of the problems of reading and the symptoms of reading disability. Considers how reading builds on the foundations of the child's development of primary language. Contains eight assertions about the development of reading and its difficulties. (SC)

Provides percentages of children ages 3 to 5 who were read to, told a story, or taken to the library by a parent or other family member. (Author/SLD)

Highlights two problems with examined study: (1) investigation is based on a misunderstanding of Goswami and Bryant's claims about the role of rhyme and analogy in beginning reading; and (2) methodological weaknesses, in particular unintended intra-list priming effects, limit the conclusions that can be drawn from the booklet analogy task. (Author)

Examines each of Goswami's criticisms of the methodology employed by Bowey et al. Argues none can explain the differential analogy and phonological priming effects or why, when phonological priming effects are controlled, size of the end analogy effect is no greater than that of beginning and medial vowel analogy effects. (Author)

Analyzes and compares the types and frequencies of background knowledge children use during independent emergent readings, and those children and teachers use in group-shared reading experiences that precede emergent readings. Uses this information to provide evidence for a model of reading as an activity constrained by contextual factors such as…