The current study explored a possible continuum of spelling features that children receiving literacy instruction in Spanish might be expected to master in Grades 1-3. We administered a developmental spelling inventory representing nine distinct Spanish spelling features to 864 students in bilingual and dual language schools across the U.S.…

This study investigates whether a curriculum supplement organized as a sequence of teacher-led literacy activities using digital content from public educational television programs can improve early literacy outcomes of low-income preschoolers. The study sample was 436 children in 80 preschool classrooms in California and New York. Preschool…

The processing of abbreviations in reading was examined with an eye movement experiment. Abbreviations were of 2 distinct types: acronyms (abbreviations that can be read with the normal grapheme-phoneme correspondence [GPC] rules, such as NASA) and initialisms (abbreviations in which the GPCs are letter names, such as NCAA). Parafoveal and foveal…

The present study investigated whether (a) growth patterns related to cognitive processing (working memory, updating, inhibition) differed in subgroups of children with reading disabilities (RD) and (b) growth in working memory (executive processing) predicted growth in other cognitive areas, such as reading and math. Seventy-three children (ages…

The study examined whether preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich literacy curriculum had better early reading skills than preschoolers who were exposed to a media-rich science curriculum. The study randomly assigned 80 preschool classes to incorporate either a media-rich literacy curriculum or a media-rich science curriculum. The final…

Notes the California's Reading Task Force's heavy emphasis on phonemic awareness (PA) evaluation and training. Argues that although evidence shows that phonemic awareness will emerge by simply reading, California's school libraries--ranked near last in the nation--would require a massive commitment to rise to the task. Argues (in an ironic tone)…

A study examined the degree to which children with limited English proficiency can benefit from English instruction in phonemic awareness and phoneme-grapheme correspondence. Subjects were 27 kindergarten children in a suburban northern California school--16 spoke Hmong as their primary language and the rest were monolingual English speakers. The…