A study involving 205 children from the Danish island of Bornholm found significant paths from early language abilities at age 3 through expressive and receptive language in kindergarten via language awareness in kindergarten and word decoding in grade 2 to sentence reading in grades 3 and 4. (Author/CR)

A follow-on study was conducted on first-grade and third-grade children who were tested on a word identification measure of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test. Results found decoding strategy was highly correlated with concurrent reading test scores. Use of phonetic decoding was a strong positive predictor and whole word decoding a negative…

Focuses on one procedure in whole-language reading instruction--individualized reading. Pinpoints a need for an adequate supply of appropriate library books to read and opportunities for pupils in a committee to have a group conference with the teacher. Cites selected issues that need resolving when heavy emphasis is placed upon phonics…

Twenty-six expert adult readers, 13 of whom were blind, were compared for how they perceived and retrieved written information. The study found that braille readers were not limited to the isolated identification of individual braille characters as previously thought, but could integrate greater quantities of written information. Implications for…

Researchers agree that a core linguistic deficit underlies poor reading at all ages; poor readers generally exhibit weaknesses in phonological processing and word-recognition speed and accuracy. Reading intervention grounded in research imparts to older readers the skills missed in primary grades and can bring them to grade level in 1 or 2 years.…

Reports on two longitudinal studies in which 3 subgroups of German-speaking children (phonological awareness deficit, naming-speed deficit, and double deficit) were assessed for reading and spelling performance three years later. Unlike findings with English-speaking children, results reveal that phonological awareness deficits did not affect…

Examined age differences in the missing-letter effect during letter-detection tasks. Found expected increase in magnitude with age of the effect even when function words and content words were equated for frequency. Word scrambling improved letter detection in function words compared to content words among older subjects, arguing against increased…

Establishes a suitable composite index which combines speed and accuracy in the measurement of decoding skill. Examines whether speed acts as a confounding factor in the measurement of decoding ability. Sees whether familiarity with the word acts as a confounding factor in the assessment of spelling skills. Indicates that including word-naming…

Investigates strategies beginners use to learn to read words in a relatively regular writing system, Brazilian Portuguese. Finds strategies used depend on the method of instruction (phonics or whole-word), similar to what happens for children learning to read English. Suggests any differences between children learning to read more or less…

Compares the effectiveness of word box instruction and word sort instruction on 42 first-grade children's phonemic awareness, word identification, and spelling performance. Finds significant differences favoring (1) word box instruction over traditional instruction on all measures except spelling; and (2) word sort instruction over traditional…

College students read one of two versions of a chapter of text in which target topic labels appeared either with high frequency or low frequency. These two experiments show that readers with low prior knowledge are more likely to make use of surface cues to identify elements of text. (BF)

Examines specific effects of home literacy on the development of word decoding and reading comprehension from first through third grade. Results reveal that parents' instructional and social-emotional quality had an effect on the development of reading comprehension, but not on word decoding. (Contains 62 references and 4 tables.) (GCP)

This study provides insights into the benefits of phoneme awareness intervention for children with complex communication needs (CCN). The specific aims of the study were: (1) to determine whether phoneme awareness skills can be successfully trained in children with CCN; and (2) to observe any transfer effects to phoneme awareness tasks not…

Prosodic reading, or reading with expression, is considered one of the hallmarks of fluent reading. The major purpose of the study was to learn how reading prosody is related to decoding and reading comprehension skills. Suprasegmental features of oral reading were measured in 2nd- and 3rd-grade children (N = 123) and 24 adults. Reading…

The purpose of this research was to examine why some students made greater gains in reading achievement than did others who participated in one volunteer tutoring program, Reading Partners. The relationships between gains in reading achievement and the texts students read, the experience of the volunteer with whom they worked, and student entering…