Kindergarten students were taught words with or without pictures to test the focal attention hypothesis that pictures interfere with sight-word learning. In this study, pictures presented with words facilitated rather than hindered learning. (MKM)

Describes a successful event at a San Francisco shopping mall where young children were read to and parents became acquainted with the importance of reading to preschool children and beginning readers. (DD)

Reports on a study that indicated the effectiveness of Scottish methods of teaching beginning reading to boys from working class homes. Describes the teaching methods used and concludes that Scottish success may be partially accounted for by early phonics teaching and by daily involvement of parents in children's reading. (GT)

The procedures used in planning and writing a primary reading program designed specifically for visually handicapped students who will use braille as their reading medium are described. The selection of a vocabulary, including a list of categories such as alphabet abbreviations, is discussed. Teaching methodology and the basis for the design of…

Describes language experience activities which tie concepts, vocabulary, sentence structure, and beginning reading skills together and which are appropriate for the bilingual child. (MKM)

This study identifies high-frequency words in the spontaneous vocabulary of 125 first grade children, and suggests ways to use the word list in teaching beginning readers. (CM)

Explains six tasks which require comprehension of words and which can be used to teach beginning readers. (MKM)

A week-by-week readiness program for preschool and early primary children. (Editor)

Reports results of a three-year longitudinal study exploring the evolution of young children's ideas about reading. Finds that there was only moderate consistency in the ages at which concepts emerged and that the sequence of conceptual development was quite uniform across these children. (SR)

Six boys with moderate intellectual disability were instructed in single-word reading and either picture labeling or simple reading comprehension. Subjects were assessed in all three skill areas. Results indicated that the four subjects who attained proficiency in trained tasks were successful in learning the untrained areas (a generalized…

Investigates young children's literacy activity within play settings designed to reflect authentic literacy contexts in children's real-world environment. Finds that, in the course of play activities, children demonstrated declarative knowledge about literacy (e.g. names of literacy objects), procedural knowledge, and strategic knowledge. Suggests…

Uses the Spear-Swerling and Sternberg model of reading disability (RD) in order to give practitioners a set of materials that are sensitive to the different developmental stages of word recognition in both normal readers and readers with RD, and that can be used for student assessment. (CR)

Two longitudinal studies examined the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading achievement in primary grades. Results found a significant correlation between kindergarten performance on phonemic awareness tasks and second-grade reading achievement. A three-year followup of low-scorers indicated that most of those students (who were a…

Describes word-learning activities for first graders, devised to help at-risk readers make discoveries about the alphabetic system. Discusses why these discoveries are important for students' progress in learning to read and spell. (SR)