Because vocabulary control in children's reading materials is largely based on vocabulary lists and studies which are now obsolete, new areas of learning are being considered for developing beginning reading materials. Instead of basing vocabulary lists on frequency counts and adult reading materials, the three approaches examined here are…

Very little has been reported in the literature as to how a child actually learns, but what is known can be put to more effective use in teaching the child to read. The brain has at least five input systems: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The first of these senses is employed more than the others in reading; however, it is believed that…

This report describes field test activities for the Wisconsin Design for Reading Skill Development and for CEMREL's Aesthetic Education Program. The word attack element of the Design was implemented in schools in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia in the 1970-71 school year. The analysis of progress in word attach and other reading skills of children…

In teaching reading, teachers should understand the three categories of language information which all readers draw upon in the processing of information. These three categories are (1) grapho-phonic, the information from the writing system and from the phonological system of oral language; (2) syntactic information, the information from…

In the Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC) Beginning Reading Program, vowels are color-coded so that different spellings, representing a single vowel sound, maintain some feature in common. Such color-coding imposes a structure which effectively reduces the uncertainty in associating visually different stimuli with a similar oral…

A two year pilot project studied difficulties of kindergarten-primary children learning to read via materials printed in the Initial Teaching Alphabet (ITA) who, because of immaturity, late development, low ability, or inability to speak English, were expected to experience reading difficulty. Of 39 children in the first year of the study, 20 used…

To evaluate the effectiveness of the Borg-Warner System 80 in seven Washington, D. C., schools, interviews, pupil progress records, questionnaires, and observational data were gathered on 103 students and their teachers. Two Borg-Warner programmed series, "Learning Letter Names" and "Reading Words in Context," were used in…

The effects of a prescribed, sequential program of reading and mathematics readiness activities were investigated in an experimental study of 229 middle-class kindergarten children. Eight of 16 kindergarten classes received the experimental treatment for six months; the other eight served as a control group. Readiness tests were given before and…

The study summarized in this book was an intensive, detailed analysis of young fluent readers, their strengths, and the weaknesses in spite of which they learned to read early and fluently. Specifically, the study investigated two aspects of learning to read: the extent to which certain characteristics may appear crucial because of the particular…

The effectiveness of providing tactile-kinesthetic sensory input during reading instruction was investigated in a sample of 60 kinesthetic-preferring first-grade pupils. Children were randomly assigned to a method which was predominantly visual, predominantly auditory, or predominantly kinesthetic. Each child received three 20-minute, individual…

A stratified random sample of 70 pupils was selected from 261 children from three elementary schools, who had completed one year of formal reading instruction. To investigate whether visual discrimination or visual-motor development was more closely related to reading achievement, tests of reading achievement, intelligence, visual-motor abilities,…

The relationship between level of cognitive functioning at the beginning of first grade and level of reading achievement at the end of first grade was investigated in a sample of 325 children. The EITS Concept Assessment Kit-Conservation was used to classify the children as being in the preconceptual stage, the intuitive stage, or the concrete…

Aptitude-treatment interactions were examined in a study involving 264 first-grade pupils randomly assigned to groups receiving perceptual training, affective education, or a combination of both, or to a comparison group receiving no supplementary instruction. Aptitude was measured using a general measure of intelligence; achievement was assessed…

This book has been developed to furnish teachers and parents with ideas for activities and games which aid children in the transition from oral language to printed language for reading and math. These games are designed to provide children with activities and experiences that increase vocabularies and make them useful in communication, language…

Drawing on results from informal reading inventories and studies of oral reading behavior, a theory is presented to describe the process of learning to read. Reading is seen to be broader than a skill and more like a repertoire with many abilities, aptitudes, and special accomplishments performing in concert. This repertoire is acquired in four…