This study examined the interrelations of speech skills and letter knowledge to the phonological awareness and early reading skills of 99 preschool children. Findings indicated that phoneme awareness, but not rhyme awareness, correlated with early reading measures and that phoneme manipulation was closely associated with letter knowledge and with…

Information processing theory suggests that sublexical fluency skills are important to word reading development, but there are few supportive data. This study investigated if sublexical fluency (letter name fluency, letter sound fluency, and phoneme segmentation fluency) contributed to the development of word reading and spelling in 92…

Examined effectiveness and feasibility of phonological awareness training, with and without a beginning decoding component. Teachers were assigned randomly to three groups: control, phonological awareness training, and phonological awareness training with beginning decoding instruction and practice. Group differences were identified at the end of…

An extensive research base on beginning reading acquisition and reading difficulties, developed over the past few decades, has important implications for the teaching of reading. Unfortunately, much of this research does not appear to be reaching teachers, whose knowledge is essential for scientific findings about reading to benefit children. This…

Many individuals who work with young children between birth and age 8 assume that literacy activities must be planned and executed as elaborate, formal lessons. The increasing pressure seeping through national accountability measures and the renewed focus on early literacy is trickling down to this age group. The Division for Early Childhood of…

Early literacy development is the gateway to reading and future academic success. Learning about sound-letter correspondence and basic decoding strategies are but two fundamental skills that have been found to support this later success. In addition, an emphasis on environmental print (e.g., McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Shell) and functional print (e.g.,…

This article considers the role of the basic cognitive unit, called the "story engram," in young children's learning to read, including children ranging in ability from severe mental retardation to giftedness. It illustrates how the "Ball-Stick-Bird" method of beginning reading can facilitate this process because of the…

This book, which uses nursery rhymes as its literature base, represents a non-threatening approach to beginning reading for children in kindergarten through grade 3. The book uses a variety of cross-curricular activities which are built around four familiar nursery rhymes. The book's introduction describes how each rhyme may be used over a 5-day…

Expanded to cover prereading through grade 12, this book presents a simple method for effectively assessing the reading proficiency of students K-12. The second edition of the book provides, using preprimer and primer passages, a means for assessing the emergent/beginning reading skills of students just entering school. The book includes a special…

Calling attention to the continuum of approaches reflected in beginning reading programs, this report presents content and cost analyses for over 50 beginning reading programs. The first of the report's five chapters is an introduction. The second chapter begins with a brief description of the major issues in the area of beginning reading and…

Proper application of the alphabetic principle rests on an awareness of the internal phonological (and morphophonological) structure of words that the alphabet represents. Unfortunately for the would-be reader-writer, such awareness is not an automatic consequence of speaking a language, because the biological specialization for speech manages the…

Dissatisfied with traditional approaches to beginning reading practices dominated by phonics, basal reading series, and workbooks, and more importantly, influenced by research and knowledge about how children learn to read, teachers/educators launched a grass-roots whole language movement in the early 1980s. However, the term "whole…

This study tested the hypothesis that Distar Reading's demonstrated effects with disadvantaged children can be generalized to children with disabilities. The study compared the effects of two synthetic phonics reading programs, Direct Instruction "Reading Mastery" (which incorporated features of Distar Reading) and Addison Wesley's…

Children's knowledge of nursery rhymes can be their path to learning to read and to enjoy reading if handled properly by their teachers and parents. Each session with a child or group of children must be enjoyable, non-threatening, inspiring and challenging for the children. They should be able to feel that their parents and teachers are also…

A study investigated the relationships between the beliefs which parents hold about literacy learning and their children's early literacy knowledge and perceptions of learning to read and write. Sixteen 3- and 4-year-olds who attended the University of British Columbia Child Study Center completed child literacy and literacy perception tests,…