This article is about life story work with people with learning disabilities. It talks about reading and writing stories, and listening to them. Telling your life story, writing it down and talking about it with others can be an important part of self-advocacy for people with learning disabilities. Life stories are helpful when they are told or…

Parents are their child's first and most important teacher. This booklet introduces parents to techniques for helping their preschoolers learn to read. Included is a story about how one mother and father encourage their children to read, a sample reading activity, and a checklist for parents of preschoolers. This brochure is based on "A Child…

"Emergent literacy" means that a young child's communication skills are in the emerging state. Clearly, the child's environment is supremely important in nurturing this emerging literacy (Morrow 1995). Children cannot become literate alone. They need the help of others to claim their own unique literacy. Although most parents recognize that they…

The purpose of the two studies reported in this article was to evaluate the effectiveness of extended vocabulary instruction during storybook reading with kindergarten students within a small-group intervention setting. Extended vocabulary instruction is characterized by explicit teaching that includes both contextual and definitional information,…

Discusses the therapeutic uses of literature and reading to children who are chronically ill or hospitalized for various reasons. (JK)

Suggestions are presented for parents on helping their children develop an interest in reading, including: talking frequently to children; helping children understand the importance of reading; reading aloud to children; reading "one-on-one"; involving children in writing; and choosing good books. (CB)

Having students read aloud can help the teacher identify reading skills and plan or modify learning activities as appropriate. Effective reading tasks promote thinking, stimulate imagination, and prompt discussion. (JOW)

Accommodations play a key role in enabling individuals with disabilities to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other large-scale assessments. However, it can be difficult to know how accommodations affect the validity of results, thus making it difficult to determine which accommodations should be allowed.…

Using an experimental research design, this project investigated the effects of teacher read-alouds when students did, and did not, have access to companion texts. Based on Connectionist theory, the researchers hypothesized that students in the Companion Text group would outperform students in the Listen Only group on the three examined variables:…

In this 3-year longitudinal study, the authors tested and extended M. Senechal and J. Le Fevre's (2002) model of the relationships between preschool home literacy practices and children's literacy and language development. Parent-child reading (Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire plus a children's Title Recognition Test) and parental teaching…

How can teachers balance early curricular demands and expectations while addressing the social and emotional needs of young children during times of crisis and stress? The author suggests that teachers need to redirect and engage children in learning activities that give them a feeling of control, competence, and empowerment in their own lives and…

This report presents findings from the Massachusetts Family Child Care study, a two-year evaluation of the impacts of an early childhood education program on providers and children in family child care. The program--"LearningGames"--is designed to train caregivers to stimulate children's cognitive, language, and social-emotional…

The purpose of this study was to identify the effects of read alouds on eighteen second graders' vocabulary acquisition and comprehension when listening to stories with and without companion texts. Following each reading session, the students were required to complete a 100 word cloze comprehension test, as well as a brief vocabulary test based on…

Stacey Brown energizes high school students with "brain-twisting" writing prompts, word games to hone vocabulary and spelling skills, and art to show complex ideas. Additionally, reading aloud to her class models fluent reading, expands students' vocabularies, builds community, and stimulates student-led discussions about the novel. (Contains 1…

Most studies of parent-child bookreading have focused on mothers reading to their children. Though the role of fathers in children's lives is widely emphasized, we know almost nothing about father-child bookreading, particularly among low-income families. The present study was designed to examine how often low-income fathers report reading to…