Phonological decoding is central to learning to read, and deficits in its acquisition have been linked to reading disorders such as dyslexia. Understanding how this skill is acquired is therefore important for characterising reading difficulties. Decoding can be taught explicitly, or implicitly learned during instruction on whole word spellings…

Results of a study of early reading responses of young children in a Finnish preschool challenge the belief that grapheme-phoneme regularity is a critical factor in beginning reading. (JM)

Contrasts the relative impact of the behaviorist and cognitive views of learning and language on beginning reading curricula and the teaching of comprehension skills. Points out that current measures of reading comprehension ignore the concept of maturity in reading. Includes a pro-reaction and a con-reaction paper. Bibliography. (WB)

A task analysis of the conceptual skills prerequisite to learning to read by a phonics-based method is made in an attempt to distinguish these skills from reading's component skills. The model for task analysis presented by Gagne, in which a cumulative learning of prerequisite conceptual skills is assumed, is used. The analysis deals primarily…

Very little has been reported in the literature as to how a child actually learns, but what is known can be put to more effective use in teaching the child to read. The brain has at least five input systems: sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. The first of these senses is employed more than the others in reading; however, it is believed that…

Since, by the time they enter school, children have developed a major portion of their spoken language system by being immersed in language, it seems probable that they could also apply these rules to the orthographic system if they were immersed in reading. Thus, learning to read by reading would allow the general formation of rules that could…

A framework for a comprehensive theory of reading is presented in this paper. The framework consists of perceptual, semantic, and control systems. The perceptual and semantic spaces of the theory should not be confused with the terms "decoding" and "comprehension"; decoding and comprehension refer to ways in which those spaces…

Culturally disadvantaged children are characterized as having neither the proper amount of physical stimuli nor the opportunity to engage in many first-hand and vicarious experiences. Emphasis is placed on the ideas that a teacher's attitude is of utmost importance to a disadvantaged child's success in school and that teaching strategies should be…

When teaching beginning reading, the use of certain children's stories, called predictable books, can yield higher reading comprehension skills, provide excellent practice for sight words, and teach good oral reading skills. A nurturing classroom environment is an important component of an effective beginning reading curriculum. An effective…

As part of a two-year project that examined the processes by which children initially approach the reading task, a study was devised to test the project's materials and procedures. Selected by a pretest, four kindergarten children, with no prior reading instruction, were taught the same reading content using the initial teaching alphabet for a…

As part of a two-year project that examined the processes by which children initially approach the reading task, the second phase of a preliminary study was devised that modified the pretest, the instructional modes and format, the sequence and amount of information presented in the instructional sessions, and the procedures for testing and…

Oral language is used before written language, according to this paper, which contends that the acquisition of literacy is merely an extension of natural language learning for all children. This view of literacy development as natural is distinguished from the views of those that think language is innate; the naturalness of children learning to…

A study investigated the extent to which bottom-up and top-down conceptual frameworks of reading were held by primary grades teachers. In the first phase of the study, 66 teachers were given the Theoretical Orientation to Reading Profile (TORP), which was designed to reflect belief systems of reading instruction organized around a continuum from…

Summarizing the final phase of a two-year project that examined the processes by which children initially approach the reading task, this report presents both general and individual findings derived from the analyses of the children's performance over the course of a year. The first section discusses the following general topics related to the…