AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH ON VISUAL DISCRIMINATION SHOWS A TREND FROM THE WHOLE-WORD VIEW TO A COMBINATION OF LETTER-DISCRIMINATION AND THE WHOLE-WORD METHOD. TEN STUDIES CITED IN THIS ARTICLE ATTEMPTED TO ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS--(1) WOULD NONVERBAL STIMULI FACILITATE READING PERFORMANCE, (2) DO CHILDREN FOCUS ON THE SHAPE OF THE WORD OR…

Describes a study of the visual discrimination abilities of children who varied in their ability to recognize words. Indicates that visual discrimination skills of the type needed to discriminate between single artificial graphemes do not seem essential for the word recognition aspect of reading. (TJ)

Strategies children use when they recognize words were explored. To measure the effectiveness of two different methods of training children to attend to the critical features of letters, 40 first-grade urban children were presented two pairs of letters (similar and dissimilar) simultaneously or successively. Unexpectedly, it was found that with…

FOUR NULL HYPOTHESES WERE TESTED TO EVALUATE SELECTED READING READINESS TESTS AS PREDICTORS OF FIRST-GRADE READING ACHIEVEMENT. FIVE SCHOOLS IN THE BANGOR, MAINE, CITY SCHOOL SYSTEM WERE RANDOMLY CHOSEN. IN EACH SCHOOL, ONE CLASS USED THE EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM WHICH EMPHASIZED SUPPLEMENTARY VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION WITH READINESS TRAINING. ANOTHER…

In an attempt to describe the place of phonics in a word-attack program, five areas of word attack are discussed: sight recognition, the use of context clues, morphology (structural analysis), phonics, and dictionary use. Facility in the use of all of these, singly and in combination, is stated as being necessary for a person to be an independent…

A linguistic reading-typewriting program for beginning readers is described. It is based on the idea that combining reading and typing into a single program allows the child the benefit and motivation of learning to read that which he writes and to write that which he reads. It provides the child an opportunity to develop his own experience…

After a discussion of the code-emphasis versus phonics-emphasis controversy, strategies for improving the teaching of decoding skills are presented. It is recommended (1) that only those phonic generalizations that are of high utility be taught, and revisions of phonics generalizations be made to make them even more inclusive and useful; (2) that…

This book is a collection of 571 activities to reinforce reading skills. The rationale for each skill is presented as an introduction to each skill area. The rationales explain (1) why the skill needs to be reinforced, (2) how to understand the skill, and (3) what the child should be able to do after completing the activities. Chapter 1 discusses…

A study examined when young children begin processing phonetic cues for reading. Subjects were kindergartners selected and classified by their ability to read preprimer and primer level words on a 40-word list--prereaders (0-1 words known), novices (1-11 words known), and veterans (11-36 words known). Subjects were given reading practice with…

The responses of 84 children (42 in kindergarten and 42 in first grade) while trying to identify sight words that were similar in sound (bowl/pole), similar in sound and shape (boat/boot), or dissimilar (cup/moon) yielded information about phonetic composition as a source of information by which beginning readers identify sight words. The…

In this study, eight groups of kindergarten children were trained to discriminate position and order differences in verbal and nonverbal item sequences in the context of a matching task or an associative learning task or both. Transfer was measured by having the subjects sight learn a list of words contrasting in position and order. Subsequently,…

A series of articles with the chief emphasis on phonics as a means of analyzing words is presented. Various articles pertain to elementary, secondary, and college level instruction. The first of the five parts into which the volume is divided is comprised of a single article which gives an excellent overview of the field of word recognition. Part…

A series of articles with the chief emphasis on phonics as a means of analyzing words is presented. Various articles pertain to elementary, secondary, and college level instruction. The first of the five parts into which the volume is divided is comprised of a single article which gives an excellent overview of the field of word recognition. Part…

Specific reading program objectives are included in this guide in the areas of prereading; word recognition; comprehension; study skills; and attitudes, interests, and values. Methods of determining reading ability by diagnosis and methods for estimating reading potential are discussed. Factors involved in early reading experiences which are…