Delves into the birth, childhood, and adolescence of the National Reading Conference, with direct attention given to the germination of the "Journal of Reading Behavior," the former title of this journal. Notes the National Reading Conference has a long and honored history spanning a period of nearly 50 years. (RS)

Examines first and second graders' decoding of one-syllable words and nonwords, each comprised of a high- to moderate-utility onset and a high-utility rime. Finds the construct validity of decoding items varied, depending on whether they were words or nonwords. Notes a superior construct validity of words over nonwords as decoding items. (RS)

Suggests that to develop fluency, educators need teacher-directed lessons in which children spend the maximum amount of time engaged in reading connected text. Presents the National Reading Panel's (2000) examination of research on guided oral reading in order to explore what works. Discusses research on effectiveness of reading practices and…

Presents a "conversation" between the authors that discusses various theories of identity, the relationship between identity and literacy, and how identities and literacies are constructed and practiced within relationships of race, gender, class, and space. Addresses findings of recent studies and the authors' thoughts about what these…

Records the eye movements of college age readers while they read aloud and then analyzes to see if there is a causal relationship between "careless" eye movements and oral reading omissions and substitutions. Finds that contrary to conventional wisdom, most omitted and substituted words are visually examined, and examined thoroughly,…

Investigates the nature of the underlying cognitive deficit in developmental dyslexia. Tests the predictions of two competing hypotheses by examining the status of several phonological and lexical retrieval skills in school-age children and adolescents with reading disability. Concludes that the phonological hypothesis offers a more parsimonious…

Addresses lack of overlap and intercommunication between research on early reading and reading comprehension. Discusses metacognitive control in reading and learning processes. Suggests the emancipation of attentional resources by the automatization of lower level word identification and higher level basic comprehension skills. Concludes with…

Explores factors involved in development of French immersion English-speaking children's ability to spell plurals in English and French. Concludes that phonological factors affect the spelling of morphemes and that skills in phonological awareness are uniquely associated with the development of the spelling of plural morphemes. (RS)

Educators must understand and act on scientific evidence so that the reader learns to access print accurately and fluently. The process of conducting scientific research is presented so that scientific evidence can be clearly understood by the educators to select the most effective and instructional approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize research on picture book reading with young children (i.e., children under the age of 3). In this paper, we review cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention reading research and describe changes in both parental and children's behaviors during picture book reading from birth to age 3. Research…

In 5 experiments, participants read text that was briefly replaced by a transient image for 33 ms at random intervals. A decrease in saccadic frequency, referred to as saccadic inhibition, occurred as early as 60-70 ms following the onset of abrupt changes in visual input. It was demonstrated that the saccadic inhibition was influenced by the…

The transition from first-generation to second-generation studies of genetic and environmental influences on the development of reading is underway. The first generation of quantitative genetic studies yielded an extraordinary conclusion: Fifty percent or more of the variance in most constructs, including reading, is attributable to genetic…

Linkage studies of complex phenotypes such as reading ability/disability (developmental dyslexia or reading disorder) and related componential processes, where the effects attributable to individual genes appear to be modest, are critically dependent on the nature and composition of the samples and the phenotypes analyzed. Thus, it might be…

Situated at the intersection of two of the most important areas in educational research today -- literacy and technology -- this handbook draws on the potential of each while carving out important new territory. It provides leadership for this newly emerging field, directing scholars to the major issues, theoretical perspectives, and…

In reading research, studies on good and poor reader characteristics abound. However, these findings remain largely scattered in applied linguistics and cognitive and educational psychology. This paper attempts to synthesize current theory and research on the topic in the past 20 years along 3 dimensions: language knowledge and processing ability,…