Background: "Synthetic phonics" is the widely accepted approach for teaching reading in English: Children are taught to sound out the letters in a word then blend these sounds together. Aims: We compared the impact of two "synthetic phonics" programmes on early reading. Sample: Children received "Letters" and…

Background: There is evidence that children who are taught to read later in childhood (age 6-7) make faster progress in early literacy than those who are taught at a younger age (4-5 years), as is current practice in the UK. Aims: Steiner-educated children begin learning how to read at age 7, and have better reading-related skills at the onset of…

Reports on intervention efforts to improve reading among 14 children (8-12 years of age) with major levels of reading retardation. Found a direct instruction program to be more effective than diagnostic-prescriptive remediation. (GC)

Reading lessons of deaf and hearing children were analyzed for teacher- and child-initiated stops, reasons for stops, time spent, and reading rate. Lessons of deaf children differed markedly from those of hearing children using the same text. Results are discussed in relation to reading retardation in the deaf. (Author/SJL)

Reports the findings of an experiment designed to assess the effects of parental involvement in the teaching of reading to young children, specifically the effects of hearing oral reading at home. The method of the study is described in detail. Five tables and a reference list are included. (JL)

Two studies of children learning to read (one before the introduction of phonics instruction, the other while phonics instruction was being given) found that error-target similarity increased with reading attainment. This suggests that while reading aloud, considerable knowledge of spelling develops independently of explicit use of phonics. (CMG)

Background: Early research exploring teacher expectations concentrated on the dyadic classroom interactions of teachers with individual students. More recent studies have shown whole class factors to have more significance in portraying teachers' expectations. Recently teachers having high or low expectations for all their students have been…