Investigated visual word recognition of first- through fifth-graders. Found that the "viewing position effect" typically seen in skilled readers and visual field asymmetries in recognizing individual letters in words emerged early at the end of the first year of reading instruction. Noted that findings support the view that basic reading…

Continues a series of articles on art projects incorporating the use of alphabetical or numerical symbols. Describes a project in which third-grade students incorporated Native American art motifs and symbols into large-scale paintings of letters of the alphabet. Notes discoveries made by students in the course of their projects. (DSK)

This study examined the effect of incorporating a visuo-haptic and haptic (tactual-kinaesthetic) exploration of letters in a training designed to develop phonemic awareness, knowledge of letters and letter/sound correspondences, on 5-year-old children's understanding and use of the alphabetic principle. Three interventions, which differed in the…

This issue of "Focus On" provides an overview of several key early literacy components: phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, concepts of print, oral language development, writing, family literacy, and reading aloud. Suggestions for assessing early literacy development are provided, and examples of implementation of effective early literacy…

This study examined the effects of observational learning on preschoolers' attention to print, use of a questioning technique, and knowledge of the alphabet. Participating were 13 boys and 13 girls from a day care center at a community college, with a mean age of 4.3 years. Children were randomly assigned to one of three training conditions, each…

Problems in the translation of Judeo-Spanish texts go beyond the problems normally associated with translation. Aside from near-native control of two languages, the translator must have knowledge of vocabulary that is not completely Spanish and an understanding of the unique orthographic history of the Judeo-Spanish dialect. There are Spanish…

Indicates that i.t.a. can be an effective tool in teaching bilingual Mexican-American children to read. (RB)

Presented is a list of multisensory activities for teaching the alphabet in three letter increments over a 1 week period to children with educational, instructional and moderate intellectual handicaps. (CL)

Spelling research indicates that an effective language arts program should incorporate direct teaching of spelling words with teaching the words in a meaningful context. (JH)

The evolution of writing systems of the Aramaic languages is discussed, stressing the importance of looking beyond simple character forms as they occur in space and time to the interaction of scripts with languages, and the interactions of writing systems with minds and civilizations. First, the invention of the alphabet is discussed from a…

Intended for preschool children, this workbook provides practice in the readiness skills for handwriting. The workbook's activities, presented in sequence of difficulty, promote the following skills: developing language; seeing similarities; seeing differences; filling in missing parts; writing basic strokes; drawing objects; establishing…

Intended for children in first grade, this workbook provides practice in writing correctly all 26 manuscript letters, both upper and lower-case, and numerals from 0 to 9. The alphabet used in the workbook is the Zaner-Bloser style of handwriting, the most widely used system in the schools of the United States. The strokes used to make each letter…

Intended for children in second grade, this workbook provides practice in writing correctly all 26 manuscript letters, both upper and lower-case, and numerals from 0 to 30. The alphabet used in the workbook is the Zaner-Bloser style of handwriting, the most widely used system in the schools of the United States. The strokes used to make each…

A handlettered collection of approximately 220 commonly-used expressions and sentences in the language of the Yurok Indians of northwestern California includes common English equivalents as well as word-for-word translations. (LFL)

The purpose of this study was to determine if the relationships among alphabet skills, auditory discrimination, and visual discrimination for five-year-olds prior to kindergarten were similar to those found in studies of subskills of first grade children. The sample consisted of 23 middle class nursery school children between the ages of 5.1 and…