"Lollipop Logic" employs visual and pictorial clues to introduce and reinforce high-powered thinking for pre-readers. Seven different thinking skills--sequences, relationships, analogies, deduction, pattern decoding, inference, and critical analysis--are presented in a format designed to appeal to gifted young learners. This…

Reading comprehension--the ability to understand the meaning of text--is a foundational ability that enables children to learn in school and throughout life. Children who struggle with reading comprehension in the third or fourth grade are at high risk for dropping out of school, with detrimental effects on their future employment, income, and…

Describes and evaluates the Test of Awareness of Language Segments (TALS), discussing the test administration, scoring, interpretation, reliability, and validity. Recommends TALS for evaluating a child's readiness for reading instruction, and for suggesting appropriate instructional interventions. (MM)

In a whole-language kindergarten, children learn language skills in a social context. Suggestions on how to develop activities that focus on a different letter of the alphabet each week are offered. These activities tie together all areas of the curriculum. (DF)

Fifteen children (ages 5.1 to 6) received a 12-week intervention on measures of phonological processing skills and reading. At posttest, students performed significantly better than the control group on measures of phonological processing skills and in reading. Results suggest such early intervention may enhance early reading and possibly reduce…

Discusses children's interest in names, and the importance of this interest for their developing literacy. (MM)

To investigate the relationship between a kindergartner's prior experience with print and the child's scores on Marie Clay's Concepts About Print Test, a study examined 23 kindergarten students from an upper middle class neighborhood. A 27-item questionnaire was given to parents at the beginning of the school year, asking what their children knew…

Studies of preschool reading are reviewed to determine environmental factors repeatedly associated with early reading. (DD)

Explores the concept of emergent literacy, discussing what children know about reading and writing, how they come to know it, and what this information means for classroom practices and school policy. (MM)

Describes an experiment designed to determine whether beginning readers read with fewer oral reading errors if the reading materials have content directly related to the reader's existing cognitive structure. (HOD)

Study identifies home literacy and literacy interest as two independent sources of literacy experience among 92 kindergarten prereaders. Together, they accounted for significant variance in oral vocabulary and on a letter-name and letter-sound measure of early written language. Discussion focuses on print exposure versus explicit print-sound…

After introductory remarks on the magnitude of changes that have taken place in early childhood education within the last 30 years, discussion focuses on early childhood research related to cognitive learning, social learning, and literacy. Social learning in kindergarten is discussed in terms of research findings on the effects of positive social…

Examines prereading and beginning reading from both a historical and a current perspective with emphasis on the implications of recent findings on children's literacy learning for instruction. (FL)

Discusses several ways teachers can use picture books for teaching prereading and reading skills. Reviews several such books. (FL)

Kindergarteners' three pretend readings of two picture storybooks are analyzed in terms of approximate, ambiguous, and five types of extrapolated tokens. Seven tables show the results of analyses. It is suggested that children use various constructive strategies to acquire a familiarity with the registers of typical written story language.…