This study examines the relationship between working memory and reading achievement in 57 Swedish primary-school children with special needs. First, it was examined whether children's working memory could be enhanced by a cognitive training program, and how the training outcomes would relate to their reading development. Next, it was explored how…

This study examined the extent to which multimedia features of typical literacy learning software provide added benefits for developing literacy skills compared with typical whole-class teaching methods. The effectiveness of the multimedia software Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) for Clicker in supporting early literacy acquisition was investigated…

Argues that proponents of the sight method must reevaluate some of their advice to teachers in light of recent research. (RB)

The research reported here was designed to examine a number of factors that findings from verbal learning studies indicate should affect the recall and transfer of word identification materials. Sight word and phonics-based or rule-based learning were investigated in 112 kindergarteners who were identified as nonreaders. Groups were trained on…

An intense debate exists around the most beneficial and successful method for teaching young children how to read. On the one side is sight-reading or the look-say method which promotes learning to read by immediate recognition of words learned through "memorization." In contrast to the sight method, the phonics method aims at teaching…

Concludes that the sight method of teaching reading is discredited by recent research findings. (RB)

Presents a study where 12 poor readers of first grade were randomly assigned to one of two daily tutoring conditions designed to teach children to read regularly spelled short words by either blending sounds to form words, or cumulative introduction of whole words. Finds no initial difference, but finds different results in delayed posttest one…

The reading profession's current emphasis on whole language may have helped to raise the recurring debate between meaning-based (whole language) and phonics-based (code emphasis) approaches to teaching reading. As some researchers have linked whole language with whole word, phonics advocates have come forth with renewed vigor to offer a series of…

Examines effectiveness of three different reading interventions in reading disabled second and third graders. Compares growth in phonological and orthographic processing and word reading. Finds the most significant mediator of intervention effects was initial differences in phonological and orthographic processing skills. Concludes that synthetic…

Finds no evidence to counter the assumption that reading begins with a logographic stage; teaching method had a significant impact on children's reading strategies; and several children taught using the whole word technique appeared to exhibit letter-by-letter reading. Suggests that letter-by-letter dyslexia might be an extreme form of a strategy…

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…

Research with kindergarten children showed that low imagery words were more difficult to recall than high imagery words. (MKM)

This study examined the differences in total number of eye movements, direction of the reading scan, and total scanning time of good and poor second-grade readers who were being taught reading by either the phonics or sight-recognition method. (HOD)

This report describes a program for improving sight word recognition and the ability to improve reading skills. The targeted population consists of a kindergarten class and a primary self-contained special education class. The schools are located in a large metropolitan city. The problem of poor sight-word recognition was documented with student…

Suggests a variation on the language experience approach designed for groups of nonverbal children. (MKM)