In two studies dissociations between reading and spelling skills were examined. Study 1 reports equally high prevalence rates for isolated deficits in reading (7%) or spelling (6%) in a representative sample (N = 2,029) of German-speaking elementary school children. In Study 2, children with isolated deficits were presented with the same words to…

This study evaluated the effect of sound-symbol association training on visual and phonological memory in children (n=24) with a history of dyslexia. Comparison with controls matched for either age or reading level found children with dyslexia or whose dyslexia had been compensated demonstrated a variety of visual and phonological memory deficits,…

In a series of six experiments, undergraduate college students visually imagined letters or words and then classified as rapidly as possible the imagined letters for some physical property such as vertical height. This procedure allowed for a preliminary assessment of the temporal parameters of visual imagination. The results delineate a number of…

Sixteen skilled and 16 learning disabled (LD) readers (ages 11-12) viewed nonsense pictures either without names, with names that emphasized the semantic aspects of the picture, or with names unassociated with the pictorial representation. Results suggested that semantic coding deficits in LD readers were localized to retrieval processes.…

The use of visual phonics can help beginning readers or reading-disabled students overcome difficulties in word learning. The technique enhances the ability to identify grapheme-phoneme correspondences (usually appearing in the middle of words and useful for decoding) and prompts the learner to generalize these correspondences from one word to…

Examines whether teaching poor text comprehenders reading strategies will improve reading comprehension. Third through fifth grade adequate decoders who were poor comprehenders were trained for 10 weeks in either a verbally or visually based reciprocal teaching program. Results reveal that training reading comprehension strategies in small groups…

This study of 96 high school biology students investigates the effectiveness of visual instruction composed of simple line drawings and printed words as compared to printed-words-only instruction, visual tests, and the interaction between visual or non-visual mode of instruction and mode of testing. The subjects were randomly assigned to be given…

A study was conducted to address the need for the public school system to provide an enriched curriculum for classroom teachers with "at-risk" students. It also examined whether students who had been exposed to a variety of supporting and related techniques of letter recognition through systematic instruction would be able to…

This document consists of a project report and tutor activities book from a project that was conducted for tutors associated with the Crawford County, Pennsylvania, READ Program. The project report describes how the commercial publications currently being used as tutor resource materials were examined to identify strategies appropriate for adult…

A study examined variables that affect the acquisition of automaticity of verbal skills. Among the variables examined were practice, novelty or familiarity of a word or word category, the speed and efficiency with which persons acquire automaticity, reaction time, and number of tasks performed concurrently. Subjects, 30 sixth and seventh grade…

Although evidence is accumulating that the major reading difficulty dyslexics experience involves decoding and recognizing printed words, it is not clear that all dyslexics read poorly for the same reasons. A study investigated dyslexic children between 7 and 14 years of age to see if their reading errors and patterns of performance would enable…

This book is designed to give parents and teachers of children with Down syndrome and other developmental delays an alternative reading program. The program is based on a functional, language-experience approach which attempts to compensate for common deficits in auditory memory and verbal skills. The seven chapters of Part 1 describe how children…

Focusing on research about children's acquisition of reading and spelling skills, this paper discusses the larger picture of reading acquisition, issues addressed by research, and results of this research. The paper cites numerous studies on the subject, including studies on whether environmental print experiences enable young children to process…

The purpose of the third edition of this book is to explore what must be involved in reading by addressing such topics as language, information theory, learning theory, the development of spoken language ability, and the physiology of the eye and brain. It is designed to serve as a handbook for language arts teachers, a text on the psychology of…