A community college basic speech instructor found that having students read public service announcements (PSAs) from various nonprofit organizations is a novel and beneficial way for them to experience the oral reading phase of the introductory speech course. Students chose one of three PSAs to read on the college radio station. The readings were…

A study examined what parents of preschool children (infancy through age five) do to help their children get ready for a formal reading program, such as how often parents carried out prereading activities and how the activities compared with those generally suggested by early childhood education experts. Surveys completed by 157 parents indicated…

This study provides longitudinal observations of young children's behaviors while viewing television in their own homes, over a time when the children were actively involved in the process of language acquisition. A total of 16 children were observed for a period ranging from 6 to 8 months. At the beginning, their ages ranged from 6 and 1/2 to 29…

A study was conducted to determine whether voice support helps children learn to read. Voice support involves reading to children while they follow the text, either informally as in bedtime reading, or formally, as in teacher or audiotaped readings of stories in the classroom. Subjects, 64 children just entering school, were unfamiliar with the 12…

The annotated materials contained in this list of children's books for 1983 have been selected for literary merit, usefulness, and enjoyment, and are intended to reflect a year's publishing with a balance between books to be enjoyed for free reading, for reading aloud, and for individualized reading programs or as background and supplements to the…

A pilot study (using the case study, or field research format) examined the acquisition of behaviors in infants who are read to and with on a consistent basis from their first day of life through the first year. Three parent/infant teams participated in a year-long course which consisted of reading "familiar" books to the infants,…

Fourteen examples of "literacy events" in the reading development of one preschool-age boy are described by the boy's mother, a parent-researcher who conducted a case study of her son's interaction with his literate home environment. Field notes were kept in a household diary, and audiotapes were made of the child's storytelling and…

The 15 articles in this journal issue deal with children's literature. Among the topics and titles discussed are (1) Virginia Hamilton's books, (2) the new realism in children's literature, (3) gender bias in children's books, (4) teaching "Where the Wild Things Are" to adults, (5) language use in "Alice in Wonderland," (6)…

This Manual provides the foundation for a reading and spelling course which avoids use of the phonic method. Instead of teaching the word as a whole and afterward subjecting it to phonic analysis, this Synthetic Method takes the sounds of the letters for the starting point, and with these sounds lay a foundation firm and broad, upon which is built…

The purpose of the mini-course described in this training manual is to provide parents with information and techniques that emphasize the importance of reading to children and to increase their proficiency in handling the task. The manual includes descriptions of the complete course, its objectives, recommended readings, lists of handouts and…

This two-part paper emphasizes the importance of language enrichment and active listening skills as a basis for reading pleasure. While acknowledging the need for developing fundamental decoding skills, the first section advocates that adults read aloud to children from books reflecting the adult's reading interests, containing creative language,…

Provides guidelines for using action (pop-up) books of rhymes and tales to help children develop prereading skills and a sense of story structure. (AEW)

Five Cambodian mothers (whose primary grade children attended a regular New Zealand school) were introduced to a Shared Reading procedure to help them learn to read, in parallel with their children. All children showed increased reading progress, as did three of the mothers. (Author/CB)

Examines six major preconditions for literacy that are rooted in the home environment and discusses some of the implications of this home literacy environment for schools. (Author/PCB)

Relays the observations of a researcher who visited a "culturally disadvantaged" child in her home. Describes how the child's interest in print was nurtured by her teacher, her mother, and the stories that they read to her. (ARH)