In this article, the author presents a teaching prompt--Write-it-Out--to instruct readers who seemingly guess at words with no or limited use of grapheme-phonemic correspondences to recontextualize word-solving into writing. Through the nature of this prompt, slowing down the pace of solving words on the run with writing also reciprocally builds…

In elementary school, an important goal of reading instruction is to enable children to read most words automatically by sight so that they can focus on learning from and enjoying what they are reading. But becoming a strong reader takes several years. Parents and caregivers need to know if a child is making good progress in learning to read.…

Improving students' spelling proficiency can increase their reading performance. Unfortunately, many students with specific learning disabilities in reading struggle with spelling. These students are often served in general education settings and provided with limited support for spelling. Recently, however, teachers have begun to incorporate…

The need to explicitly teach letter-sound relationships in U.S. classrooms is settled science. However, too often such instruction is not provided in the most efficient or effective way. These instructional missteps mean that fewer children will develop strong word-reading skills. In addition, ineffective phonics instruction is likely to require…

The science of reading has captured the attention of educators, policy makers, and the public. Elfrieda H. Hiebert recounts some of what she's learned from her recent exploration of the topic. She has found that research evidence tends to fall into three categories: research that provides unequivocal conclusions, research that holds promise for…

Learning to read and spell involves learning about the written forms of words and how these are linked to language. Writing systems include formal patterns, which pertain to the appearance of written words, and functional patterns, which pertain to links between units of writing and units of language. We review the evidence that learners of a…

Family engagement and family literacy are two of the most important or components for building a strong foundation for children's academic success. Family engagement is about spending quality time with children every day by talking, playing, and asking questions, which builds bonds and promotes language development. Family literacy supports…

The What Works Clearinghouse™ is a federally funded source of scientific evidence for what works in education. The What Works Clearinghouse aims to disseminate findings from rigorous education research to the education community. One mechanism for accomplishing this aim is the production of practice guides. Panels of national content experts,…

Purpose: The purposes of this alphabet knowledge (AK) tutorial are to provide (a) a description of its developmental sequence, (b) evidence-based assessment considerations, (c) evidence-based intervention guidance, and (d) a discussion of three service delivery models that speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can use when providing intervention…

A hallmark of skilled reading is recognizing written words automatically from memory by sight. How beginning readers attain this skill is explained. They must acquire foundational knowledge, including phonemic segmentation, grapheme-phoneme knowledge, decoding, and spelling skills. When these skills are applied, spellings of words become bonded to…

One avenue for improving reading outcomes is to ensure children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) enter school with the foundational skills needed to learn to read. Our research team developed an early literacy curriculum specifically for DHH children. Teachers use Foundations for Literacy (FFL) in a one-hour literacy block for the school…

This paper presents an overview of evidence from psychological research, which enables us to understand the processes involved in word reading, how children develop word reading skills and how to teach them to read words successfully. Psychological models of reading in alphabetic orthographies propose two routes to word reading: an indirect route…

An early skill in learning to read has as much to do with hearing how words sound as it does with seeing how words are written. Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. Learning to identify the sounds in words through instruction happens best when the sounds are explicitly connected to the…

Purpose: Reading and writing are foundational skills that provide access to educational, vocational, and social experiences. However, while the gap widens between the literacy skills of individuals with intellectual disability (ID) and those with typical development as they grow into adolescence, little is known about meeting the comprehensive…

For students to be able to read and comprehend, they must first develop phonological awareness, the ability to recognize and manipulate the segments of sound in words. To develop this ability, students must be able to identify the following: individual sounds (phonemes) in words; print letters of the alphabet; and corresponding sounds for each…