Examines the effects of teaching parents to deliver a carefully sequenced reading program to their kindergarten children who were not receiving formal reading instruction in school. Discusses results relative to previous research in which teachers implemented the curriculum and the issues associated with utilizing parents as primary beginning…

This article explores how tactile experience books can be used to ensure that young children with visual impairments learn to read. It discusses making tactile experience books by collecting artifacts and gluing them to cardboard pages, and the benefits of tactile books. Descriptions of two tactile books are provided. (Contains references.) (CR)

Examines the relationship between phonological and cognitive tasks with beginning reading acquisition. Uses two teaching techniques for tasks given first-grade students in Cyprus (n=50) and Greece (n=50). Reports differences were revealed in word-decoding accuracy, Greek students showed a higher linguistic ability, and successive processing and…

Examines computer modeling of the reading process and the instructional technology of basals, the two pillars of Marilyn Adams text, "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." Explains why the author believes Adams is fundamentally wrong in her theoretical approach to reading instruction. (MG)

Interviews Marilyn Jager Adams about her book "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print." Discusses the critical issues of phonics versus whole language and what she hopes teachers will gain from the book. (MG)

The article reviews cognitive psychology's contributions to understanding the development of reading skills. Key concepts are phonological and linguistic awareness, schemata, learning strategies, metacognition, and learning as a social interaction. (Author/DB)

Follows the reading and writing development of a young boy from first through third grade. Shares how, through storytelling, he defined a sense of himself that retained a strong connection to his primary-years personality while reaching out confidently toward the world of upper elementary classrooms that he would now be facing. (MG)

Argues that real books attract, intrigue, and illuminate their young readers, making them laugh, touching their feelings, and clarifying situations. Argues that real books provide many lessons about reading, about print, about text, and about life. (RS)

Presents early childhood teachers with whole language ideas for helping young children establish a sense of illustratorship; these include studying favorite authors or illustrators, teaching children to recognize salient features of book illustrations, establishing a sense of audience, displaying children's drawings and writing, and publishing…

Examines interactions between 48 mothers and their two- , three-and-a-half-, and five-year-old children during book reading sessions. Formal reading and interchange about story content increased with age and book familiarity, while labelling decreased with age and book familiarity. (RJC)

Discusses a reading project, Beginning With Books, designed to promote literacy among low-income preschool children and provide them with books. Describes the project's development and the procedure for operating the Gift Book Program. Lists 51 books suitable for a toddler book collection. (RJC)

Describes several studies examining how children become skilled at processing graphic cues. Reports that prereaders do not acquire graphic skills by learning to read signs and labels in their environment. Concludes that mastery of letters is required for processing graphic cues. (MM)

Describes a program in which parents demonstrated a willingness to become involved in the reading activities of their preschool children, following involvement in Share-a-Story sessions. (NH)

Examines the predictive relations among symbolic play, the use of metalinguistic verbs and emergent literacy for preschool children. Describes different regression models for older and younger children and suggests that L.S. Vygotsky's and David Olson's theories of literacy are developmentally complementary. (KEH)

An observational project on children's early literacy examined conditions necessary for growth in literacy; ways children evidence their need for personal control through literacy; the social functions of literacy for young children; and how children manipulate and play with language. (TJQ)