Background: In the last two decades, a number of empirical studies investigated the impact of UK-based interventions for struggling readers in later primary years (called Key Stage 2 or KS2 in the UK). However, to date, there are no reviews that look at the extent and nature of the existing UK-based literature. This scoping review explores the…

Background: To better understand the intricate science of reading development, both cognitive and affective factors must be taken into consideration. This developmental study aims to enrich the literature by exploring how reading motivation -- an affective factor -- contributes to reading comprehension in Chinese elementary schoolers, beyond…

Background: This study explored the impact of different cut-off points used to identify children with reading difficulties on the distribution of these children across the three poor reader groups predicted by the simple view of reading (dyslexia, specific comprehension difficulty and mixed difficulty). Additionally, the study investigated whether…

Background: The National Education Policy of India in 2020 indicated a goal that all children will achieve foundational literacy by Grade 3 by 2025. In line with this, the Indian government sets a target of 30 to 35 correct words per minute (cwpm) at Grade 3. However, there are no supporting data for reading fluency targets in the Indian reading…

Background: In England, instruction in systematic synthetic phonics is the first approach to teaching children to read words. There is little research exploring what makes successful training for phonics teaching despite evidence teachers' subject knowledge is limited. There is a persisting problem of underachievement in reading in some regions of…

Background: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of Structured Word Inquiry (SWI; an orthography intervention with a focus on morphology and how morphology interrelates with phonology and etymology) and Simplicity intervention (a novel phonics intervention) on the reading and spelling skills of persistently poor Grade 3 readers.…

Background: Research has shown that achievement goals and reading instruction play important roles in students' reading performance. However, little is known about the specific effects of different types of achievement goals and reading instructional practices on reading performance in mainland China. Methods: This study used Programme of…

Background: Little is known about how fine motor skills (FMS) relate to early literacy skills, especially over and above cognitive variables. Moreover, a lack of distinction between FMS, grapho-motor and writing skills may have hampered previous work. Method: In Germany, kindergartners (n = 144, aged 6;1) were recruited before beginning formal…

Background: The present study examined differences in the prediction of reading development and reading difficulties in Estonia (n = 348) and Finland (n = 344). These neighbouring countries share many similarities in terms of their language, orthography and educational system; however, they differ in the timing of the onset of reading instruction,…

Background: Physically manipulating objects according to texts can improve reading performance. This study examined whether these benefits can also be achieved via observing these manipulations or whether, because of an additional involvement of an action system, the physical manipulation might induce larger effects. Methods: In total, 134 second…

Students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in Australia have persistently performed at relatively low levels in national and international tests of reading literacy. Research attention is required to look for new models to promote reading and reading engagement for disadvantaged students. The current study discussed a case study derived…

This study aimed to expand on existing research about motivational change by investigating within-year changes of adolescents' intrinsic reading motivation and perceived reading instruction among students from different grades and achievement levels. Six hundred and ninety five students from 10 secondary schools in Hong Kong voluntarily completed…

Multiple cognitive skills support the acquisition of proficient reading skills. Higher order processing abilities allowing the engagement and integration of multiple ideas collectively referred to as executive functions may be particularly important in reading comprehension. In the present study, 39 Danish school age children completed executive…

The "summer learning effect" (SLE) is described as a stall or drop in achievement over summer, especially in schools serving poor or "minority" communities. There has been little research in Europe on the effect, and research internationally has primarily focused on the effect in reading, with minimal focus on writing. This…

Successful anaphor comprehension in reading is related to the explicitness of the antecedent--anaphor relation. It mirrors one of the purposes of textual enhancement (TE), which is that it raises learners' awareness of linguistic forms by enhancing the salience of input. Therefore, learners notice the enhanced form and discover the rule or…