This study examined a critical learning outcome of behavioral fluency, "application." Application refers to the combination of two or more behaviors that form a composite or compound behavior. Three students with specific learning disabilities in reading learned two behaviors, how to write a set of letter sounds they heard and orally segment words…

"Waterford Early Reading Level One"[TM] is an emergent literacy curriculum that uses computer-based technology to prepare children for reading. It begins with a tutorial to familiarize the child with the computer and mouse and a reading placement evaluation to assess and determine whether a child should work on "Level One"…

Library media specialists have been collaborating with classroom teachers for years and have long been advocates for tying the classroom curriculum to the library media center in real-world ways. Current reading research focuses on the many aspects of learning to read, including phonics and alphabet recognition, vocabulary building, fluency, and…

This study focused on the read-aloud and attendant behaviors of learners working with an experimental computer-based program, which made use of speech recognition technology to provide reading practice with immediate feedback for beginning readers. The study drew on data from 13 participants, who used the software as part of their twice-weekly…

Teachers now have a wide range of tools to help assess the beginning reading performance of kindergarten and first-grade children. However, validated procedures for assessing the beginning writing skills of kindergarten and first-grade children are less widely available. Learning to write, like learning to read, is a complex task. The ability to…

Embedded multimedia refers to teaching methods that embed video content within teachers' lessons. The research of Mayer and others has suggested that multimedia instruction can enhance learning by using the capacity of both visual and verbal memory systems. The present study is an evaluation of embedded multimedia in a year-long randomized…

In 1990, Cunningham developed a Names Test as a quick and easy screening tool for teachers to obtain information about a student's decoding skills. In 1994, Duffelmeyer, Kruse, Merkley, and Fyfe added 10 names to the original Names Test and developed a comprehensive scoring matrix to increase diagnostic information from the test, based on error…

A study determined if a correlation existed between the use of predictable materials and the enhancement of reading skills. The specific reading skills in question were oral vocabulary, visual discrimination, letter and word recognition. Data were drawn from a group of first graders that represented a cross section of social, economic, and…

Repeated readings are a common, recommended practice for beginning readers. A study compared the gains made by high level and low level ability first grade readers in reading fluency. An initial reading of text at a second grade reading level was audiotaped and analyzed for rate and accuracy. This was followed by four readings, including a…

This book uses phonics to teach reading in a complete manual for beginning and remedial readers of all ages. The book builds sounds and spelling patterns slowly and systematically into syllables, phrases, and sentences of gradually increasing complexity, presenting only one sound per lesson--each new sound builds upon previously learned skills for…

The teaching and self-study materials of the Phonological Transcription Accompanied Text (PTAT) method takes into account both sides of the debate over reading instruction in which the skills-emphasis partisans and the meaning-emphasis partisans are engaged. PTAT materials attempt to make the best use of children's oral language and rich…

As educators continue to debate the value of phonic versus meaning-based approaches to reading, a significant number of children continue to fail to learn to read. One of the fundamental tasks facing the beginning reader is to develop the realization that speech can be segmented and that these segmented units can be represented by printed forms. A…

Two Schools of thought prominent in reading instruction are: (1) that reading is a language-based skill which requires the reader to have a sound knowledge of phonology and that this knowledge must be at an automatic level of information processing; and (2) that reading problems are the result of being overly attentive to phonetic and orthographic…

Suggesting that Reading Recovery belongs on the restructuring agenda of American education, this booklet introduces educators and others to how Reading Recovery works, how teachers are trained to use the program, and how it can be implemented in a school or district. Sections of the booklet are: Introduction; Overview of Reading Recovery; How…

A study compared a parallel distributed processing (PDP) model with a more traditional symbolic information processing model that accounts for early reading acquisition by human subjects. Two experimental paradigms were simulated. In one paradigm (a "savings" paradigm) subjects were divided into two groups and trained with two sets of…