One approach to preparing kindergarten children for beginning reading combines a meaningful print environment with active student involvement in the learning process. The environment of the classroom from the beginning exposes children to meaningful printed words and symbols. Children use name tags not only for identification but also as a way for…

Jean Piaget's theory seems to lend support to reading specialists who believe that concrete operational thought constitutes a necessary and sufficient condition for learning to read. Preoperational children cannot deal with the complex relationships inherent in reading because they are tied perceptually to the immediate situation or…

The methods and validity of evaluations of cognitive development, in language and numbers, of children ages three through six, by use of classroom observation inventory lists are discussed. The Evaluation of Cognitive Development--Pre-Reading Skills, an observational instrument (teacher completed), was administered to 134 first grade students in a…

This paper analyzes: (1) the task of learning to read, in the context of cognitive and linguistic tools a child has at his/her disposal; (2) how these tools change with further development and experience; and (3) how teachers can foster this development and growth. Eight research-based recommendations for classroom teaching are given. (PP)

ONE OF THE PROBLEMS OF TEACHING READING TO CHILDREN WITH LOW MENTAL AGES, FOR EXAMPLE, OF FOUR TO FIVE, IS THAT MOST READING PROGRAMS ARE GEARED TO THE CHILDREN WITH A MENTAL AGE OF ABOUT SIX AND ONE-HALF. A CHILD WITH THIS HIGHER MENTAL DEVELOPMENT WILL OFTEN HAVE MANY OF THE BASIC READING SKILLS ALREADY ACCOMPLISHED, OR HE CAN LEARN THEM QUICKLY…

Successive studies conducted in Sweden have shown that linguistic awareness is an important prerequisite of learning to read. In one survey that measured the various aspects of the linguistic awareness of 6-year-old children, a very close connection was found between preschool linguistic awareness and reading proficiency in school. Another study…

A study examined the relationships between cognitive tasks and social skills that are relevant to prereading or beginning reading instruction by observing lessons given to small groups of children. Four preschool children--one with many prereading skills and three with few skills--participated in the study. Student-teacher interaction that…

Prereading assessment was first used to predict school readiness and was an assessment of the child's visual and oral vocabulary skills. By the 1970s, readiness assessment had changed from assessment of a child's developmental probability for success or failure in reading to an assessment of the child's skill development in relation to the reading…

A close relationship exists between children's capacity for learning in school (especially learning to read) and the amount and kind of reading aloud done by parents and teachers to children. Children's literature, especially the illustrations and the language contained in fine picture books, has the potential to provide six benefits that…