This study focuses on the relationship between blending ability and reading comprehension among 80 prereading children from three private preschools. Three methods of instruction were tested: One group was instructed with an auditory method; the second group was instructed with an auditory-visual method; and the third group practiced the basic set…

This study examined the relationship of selected maternal variables to reading achievement and IQ in 19 black boys and girls from two first-grade classes. An interview schedule was used to assess the selected maternal behaviors; reading achievement was measured by the California Achievement Tests. Significant relationships were found between…

This booklet contains a series of supplementary art projects, for kindergarten through fifth grade, designed to improve reading and art skills through positive psychomotor experiences. Because both reading ability and artistic potential depend on the development of visual perception skills, sensitivity, intuition, imagination, curiosity, and a…

In order to determine if there is a relationship between reading achievement and the ability to conserve as measured by replications of Piagetian conservation tasks, 160 beginning second-grade students were identified as achievers or low achievers according to reading and intelligence test scores, and their performance on the Piagetian tasks was…

This investigation examined the specific relationships between two reading achievement measures at the end of the first grade and the following measures: (1) three selected oral language measures, (2) five readiness measures, and (3) a combination of these measures. Further, the study attempted to determine if the relationships between the oral…

This book has been written to help parents, or any other nonprofessional reading teachers, teach preschoolers about reading. Part one discusses the psychological, philosophical, and historical aspects of home teaching. Part two presents the practical aspects of home teaching, specifically the things a parent can do to prepare a child to read and a…

The nature and use of contractions and abbreviations in beginning reading is discussed and applied to the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Mod 2 Reading Program, a four-year program (K-3) for teaching reading skills to primary-grade children. The contractions and abbreviations are listed and sequenced for the reading program. The results of…

Defining prereading skills, discussing their discovery, and determining their value in reading readiness are the primary concerns of this paper. Prereading skills are defined by logical analysis of the reading task and by instructional conventions. From an analysis of initial reading tasks, prerequisite skills are identified. Those skills which…

This paper details the development of two commercial programs for the instruction of language skills. The first, a reading program for the first two months of first grade, is designed to move children from speaking to reading without experiencing failure. In teaching prereading phonics skills (letter recognition, letter writing, awareness of…

In order to understand better the elemental processes involved in beginning reading (specifically, how cognitive skills are acquired and whether a relationship exists among basic skills), Robert Calfee and colleagues conducted a first-grade reading diary study. Forty target children in 1973-1974 and 50 children in 1974-1975 were observed as they…

This study was designed to determine the relationship between sex, race, and the vocabulary development of kindergarten children essential for readiness to read. Fifty-one kindergarten children (twenty-nine males and twenty-two females) from Texas public schools were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the vocabulary subtest of the…

An overview of the language experience approach and suggestions for implementing it at all levels of instruction are presented in this booklet. Based on the assumption that it is impossible to isolate reading instruction from other language functions, a multimethod approach is described which focuses on the linguistic, conceptual, and perceptual…

One of the programs included in "Effective Reading Programs...," this program is based on the principle of early identification of students' strengths and weaknesses and the development of individualized methods to correct the weaknesses and emphasize the strengths. The program, begun in 1972, serves 749 kindergarten and first-grade…

This study was based on the hypothesis that familiarity was an unrecognized factor producing gains scored on previous studies to determine whether a relationship between achievement in beginning reading and cognitive synthesis could be demonstrated. Subjects were 56 randomly selected kindergartners given Farnham-Diggory's synthesis tasks as a…

An effort to lay the foundation for the preparation of reading programs which will match the social and linguistic background of lower-class children, in particular children of the nation's black ghettos, is made in this paper. The paper consists of five sections. The first section discusses the interconnection of social, geographic, and stylistic…