Forty-eight kindergarten children were assigned to phoneme identity, phoneme manipulation, or language experience programs. Children in the manipulation program made greater gains in blending and segmentation, but children in the phoneme identity condition made greater gains on a test of phonetic cue reading. Implications for reading instruction…

Discusses how all children must learn to work to overcome a difficulty, take initiative, and make links with what they already know. Illustrates these actions with instructional interactions in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms. Notes how teachers can establish a pattern of expectations. Outlines ways teachers can foster active learning, and…

Investigates the relation between phonological awareness, sound-to-letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five-year-old readers. Explores effects of visual memory and of teaching methods. Finds mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological…

Investigates whether syllable and phoneme awareness make independent contributions to reading and spelling in Greek. Uses four measures: syllable awareness, phoneme awareness, reading and spelling. Concludes that phonological awareness is a multidimensional phenomenon and that the different dimensions contribute to reading and writing in Greek.…

Discusses the teaching approaches which English primary schools are encouraged to use as part of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS) and the ways in which the case for their increased use is supported by research and inspection evidence. Outlines the studies which have influenced the NLS in promoting greater direct interactive teaching of…

Examines relationships between phonological skills and reading in 143 Arab children in Arab villages of central Israel. Finds that a word recognition test was highly correlated with phonological skills, semantic processing, syntactic knowledge, and short-term memory, and that poor readers significantly lagged in skill development. Discusses…

Investigates the internalization process of reading among 32 first graders. Finds that more of the experimental group students (who were allowed to "mumble read" during instructional and silent reading time) were reading silently as well as having higher reading placements than the control group (whose vocalizations were suppressed). (RS)

This article briefly summarizes what is known about how phonological awareness fits into the beginning reading process and effective methods for teaching phonological awareness. Special difficulties with phonological awareness of children with learning disabilities or from culturally diverse backgrounds are noted. (DB)

This study compared immediate (after each error) and delayed (at the end of each session) error correction during sight-word instruction with 4 students (ages 7-9) with developmental disabilities. Immediate error correction was superior on each of four dependent variables. (Author/DB)

A study investigated the effectiveness in increasing social exchanges of embedding textual cues in the photographic activity schedules of three boys (ages 4-5) with autism. After learning to use the scripts, verbal elaborations and unscripted interactions increased. After scripts were faded, interactions continued and generalized to other…

Reports the results of a case study measuring the impact of reading aloud to a first grader over a period of one year. Notes the student made substantial gains in reading and writing by the end of the school year, and that the student became a voracious reader of poetry. (NH)

Describes a teacher-research study of the reading acquisition of a second-grade student. Observes the social and instructional context of Amy's reading and her use of visual and non-visual information. Discusses patterns in Amy's text choice over 4 phases, patterns in strategy use, and teacher roles. Discusses this reader's self-extending system…

Calls for review of research on best practices in phonemic awareness training and direct-instruction reading programs. Suggests that a more effective approach to reading instruction is to integrate skills instruction with meaningful literacy experiences and to use writing to help children learn about written language, including phonemic awareness.…

Examines how different types of word recognition instruction appeared to affect students with different early literacy foundations. Finds differences in instructional practices to be related to growth in reading. Identifies four classroom practices that seemed to have the greatest success with children entering first grade with minimal reading…

Explores the relation between preschool phoneme awareness and initial reading development. Confirms a significant impact of functional letter knowledge on the length of the foundation period and on later reading development. Argues that phonemic awareness is an indispensable catalyst in the development of initial word processing ability. (SG)