Ninety-three children (ages 10-12) were compared on phonological and visuospatial abilities. Children with a reading disability performed worse than nondisabled children on many visual and eye movement tasks. Sixty-eight percent of the variance in reading ability could be predicted by combining visual and phonological scores in a multiple…

This study compared the object naming, object recognition, reading, and spelling abilities of 22 adults, half with written language difficulties and half without. Significant positive relationships were obtained between object naming ability and reading ability, object naming and spelling, and reading and spelling performance. Results suggest that…

Analysis of data from 96 children in a longitudinal study found that foundation skills in speech perception and language as well as family demographics and home environmental variables were related to and predicted later reading scores. Event related potential measures of speech perception immediately after birth also predicted reading scores,…

Review of the contribution of various oral language abilities to early reading performances found that, although phonemic awareness was the best predictor of early reading skills, metasyntactic ability also often accounted for significant variance. Once children acquire initial decoding skills, narrative discourse and other metalinguistic skills…

Electroencephalographic (EEG) power spectra were studied in two poor reader groups (dyslexia and slow learning) and a normal reading group with attention deficit disorder (ADD). In correlational analyses, the combination of greater low beta and less theta power significantly predicted better reading and spelling. Results suggest adequate readers…

This study of 121 10th-grade students investigated the criterion-related validity of 2 potential curriculum-based measurements, reading from text and identifying vocabulary meaning, for predicting student performance on content-area study tasks. Correlational and multiple regression techniques found the vocabulary measure to be the stronger…

This study examined the development of reading and phonological processing abilities of 209 first graders assessed at the beginning and end of the school year. The discriminant analysis, based on reading and intelligence data, correctly identified later group membership (students with and without reading disabilities and "garden variety" poor…

This longitudinal study examined predictors of second-grade reading outcomes in kindergarten children (N=604). Findings indicated that five kindergarten variables uniquely predicted reading outcomes in second grade: (1) letter identification, (2) sentence imitation, (3) phonological awareness, (4) rapid naming, and (5) mother's education.…

A study examined the reading skills of minority and bilingual auto mechanics and office workers in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in order to determine the relationship between the reading skills tested in competency-based exams given in high schools and those required for on-the-job performance. The first phase of the study included both…

This study found that a linear discriminant function was able, with 73 percent accuracy, to distinguish between learning-disabled dropouts (n=213) and learning-disabled graduates (n=92). The discriminant function was composed of six variables--student ethnicity, reading ability, family intactness, family socioeconomic status, school transfers, and…

This study compared (1) performance on language skills and phonological process measures by 41 kindergarten children with speech/language impairments, and (2) their reading ability in first grade. Children with semantic-syntactic language deficits exhibited more difficulties in reading than did children with articulation impairments. Phonological…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects of metacognitive comprehension monitoring strategies on fourth grade students' reading comprehension and recall performance; (2) elementary school…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 28 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) prekindergarten screening and first grade reading achievement; (2) the influence of the instructional environment on children's acquisition of reading; (3)…