Explores whether training in mental imagery can improve text comprehension in good and poor nine-year-old comprehenders. Finds that a three-session program of training in imagery benefited the poor, but not the good, comprehenders. Discusses results in relation to possible causes of children's comprehension difficulties. (MG)

Reviews formal and informal reading achievement and diagnostic tests, evaluating them to see how they measure reading and spelling abilities within the framework of component-view of reading. Discusses recent attempts to develop alternate assessments. Concludes that school psychologists and reading specialists should be familiar with these…

Electroencephalographic power spectra were studied in two poor-reading adolescent groups (n=38), dysphonetic and phonetic. Significant Group x Hemisphere effects were found in the alpha and beta bands, with the phonetic group showing right greater than left asymmetry. Results suggest more circumscribed and mature processing in the phonetically…

Proverb comprehension through reading was examined in 42 preadolescent students, 24 of whom were identified as "proficient readers," and 18 as "less proficient readers." Comprehension on both unfamiliar concrete and abstract proverbs was associated with reading proficiency, word knowledge, and analogical reasoning. (Contains references.)…

Comparison of the reading of rhymes by 20 children with cognitive disabilities (Down syndrome or autism) and 20 typically developing children (all matched for word recognition skills) found both groups were more similar than dissimilar in their rhyme-recognition accuracy, miscues, and grapheme-phoneme knowledge. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

This study examined the hypothesis that spelling errors involving vowels are linked to difficulties in vowel perception. Second to fourth graders (n=155) were grouped by reading skill and given vowel discrimination and identification tasks. Vowel identification errors were linearly associated with reading skill and with vowel spelling errors.…

The relation between reading ability and performance on an auditory temporal pattern discrimination task was investigated in children who were either good or delayed readers. The stimuli in the primary task consisted of sequences of tones, alternating between high and low frequencies. The threshold interstimulus interval (ISI) for discrimination…

This is a longitudinal case study of a child who taught herself to read before she went to school. This case study is drawn from a wider study of a group of precocious readers, all of whom had received no explicit instruction, but who had had positive literacy experiences in their homes. The subject of this study was able to read fluently at the…

Work teams sometimes include individuals with low levels of reading proficiency. Traditional team assessment instruments may not be suitable for use with such teams. A well-known teamwork instrument, the Team Excellence survey (LaFasto & Larson, 1987), was simplified to enhance readability. Fifty-two participants completed both the original and…

A reader is one who can find his way through a poem, novel or short story to perform in important ways. Ten rights that readers should have when they approach a text are stated.

Vocal reaction times were measured in Italian dyslexics and in proficient readers while they read single words. Three groups of control participants (for a total of 79) were tested. All were in the first, second or third grade of elementary school. Nine third graders with a low level of reading ability when assessed by standard reading procedures…

The ability to read music accurately at sight is an extremely important, if not indispensable, qualification of both professional and amateur musicians. Sight-reading can be defined as the ability to translate musical symbols and terms into a musical performance using strict time limits. The musician must quickly perceive symbols ahead while…

This study was designed to investigate the importance of spatial encoding in reading, with particular emphasis on visuo-spatial encoding mechanisms. Thirty one school children participated in the first study in which they were measured on their ability to solve a centrally presented spatial encoding task, as well as their sensitivity to the…

Background: The Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (NARA; Neale, 1997) is a widely used assessment of reading comprehension and word reading accuracy. Spooner, Baddeley, and Gathercole (2004) questioned the suitability of the NARA for identifying children with specific reading comprehension deficits. Aims and methods: An evaluation of the NARA…

The present study examined the relationship between reading ability (i.e., reading comprehension and reading vocabulary) and academic procrastination among 120 African American graduate students. A canonical correlation analysis revealed statistically significant and practically significant multivariate relationships between these two reading…