Demonstrates that discrimination training with verbal materials (words and letters) is generally more helpful than training with non-verbal forms. (RB)

The purpose of this investigation was to study the effect of controlling the letters used in words both for a training program designed to improve visual discrimination and for a word recognition task. The experiment was designed to investigate the influence of simultaneous and successive discrimination learning with stimuli which varied in…

Describes a study of 16 kindergarten children--eight good prereaders and eight poor prereaders--designed to determine if there were relations between reading skill and the processing of distinctive features of patterns. Concludes that both pattern classification and feature processing appear to be involved in early reading skills. (TJ)

A laboratory and a classroom study were conducted to determine if verbal association learning would be facilitated by visual discrimination training. Kindergarten children who could not recognize the letters used were the subjects for both studies. In the laboratory study, 90 subjects were randomly assigned to the experimental group (E) which got…

The relationship between reading ability and recognition of four kinds of perceptual stimuli for purposes of reading disability diagnosis was investigated. The sample consisted of 84 male grade-3 pupils who were matched on intellectual ability but who differed in reading proficiency. Three groups, based on a 6-month discrepancy either above or…

Two experiments were conducted with children to determine the units of word perception used in recognizing isolated words. In the first experiment, kindergarten children practiced visually discriminating whole words (big, pig, dig), single letters (b, p, d), or geometric forms (triangle, circle, square) before learning to read three words (big,…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the relationships among alphabet skills, auditory discrimination, and visual discrimination for five-year-olds prior to kindergarten were similar to those found in studies of subskills of first grade children. The sample consisted of 23 middle class nursery school children between the ages of 5.1 and…

The assumption that the learning of letter names in their proper sequence is a prerequisite for literacy can be questioned. There is disagreement over the value of early letter-name training. It is variously said to aid in letter or word discrimination, to aid in attaching sounds to letters, and to interfere with both of these tasks. An analysis…

This bulletin is a compilation of papers dealing with the role of perceptual functions in reading and reading difficulties that were delivered at the 1966-67 Convention of the International Reading Association. Various sections are devoted to discussions of and reports of research on such matters as the auditory and visual modalities in reading,…

This study examines the relationships between the measures of visual and auditory discrimination contained in five reading readiness batteries: the Clymer-Barrett Prereading Battery (Form A), the Gates-MacGinitie Readiness Skills Test, the Harrison-Stroud Reading Readiness Profile, the Metropolitan Reading Readiness Tests (Form A), and the…

A 3-year study concerning teaching a phonics-oriented kindergarten readiness program of letter recognition and beginning consonant sounds was discussed. Sixty-eight children attending kindergarten in a suburban middle and upper-middle class community composed the sample. The experimental group consisted of 33 children; the control group consisted…

The development of a research model to aid in the understanding of the hierarchical structure of reading readiness is described. Data were obtained by testing 218 first graders from three elementary schools with the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, the Gates Reading Readiness Test, the Metropolitan Readiness Test, the Olson Reading…