Results of the study seem to suggest the presence of general deficits in the auditory receptive and vocal expressive abilities of poor reading disadvantaged children, who learned to read using the initial teaching alphabet series rather than the traditional orthography approach. (Author)

The effectiveness of tangible and social reinforcement with and without positive practice on the remediation of letter reversals in a 20-year-old severely retarded male was investigated. Tangible reinforcement plus positive practice increased accuracy of letter recognition which was generalized and maintained seven and ten months after training.…

Subjects instructed to circle misspellings while reading prose were less likely to detect misspellings in function than in content words. Misspellings that changed the shape of a word were more likely to be detected. It is not clear whether differences between function and content words are due to familiarity or redundancy. (Author/RD)

High frequency words typed in normal and alternating case were presented tachistoscopically in the fovea and parafovea to children and adults. Dependent measures were percentages of letters and words correct. Few differences between age groups were found. Serial position curves also showed similarities across grades in the parafoveal information…

After a brief historical (Orton) and theoretical (Gibson) look at the phenomenon of reversals, two groups of studies are reviewed and evaluated. The first group involves neurological and psychological factors associated with reversals such as age and training. The second relates reversals to reading disabilities and to future reading achievement.…

Provides information concerning the value of letter names in the teaching of reading and spelling. Presents specific discussions about the importance of letter names to prereading phonics abilities, the phonemic values in letter names, and the use of letter names in word analysis, semantic word recognition, and semantic spelling. (MKM)

Twenty-four elementary school children ranging in age from 7 to 10 years identified tachistoscopically presented arrays varying in length and degree of orthographic constraint. (Author/MP)

To examine the association between reversal errors and neurological disorders, 409 first graders were asked to name the letters of the lowercase alphabet presented in fixed, nonalphabetical order. (Author)

Claims that writing systems that constitute a species of graphic systems, such as pictures and charts, are distinctive in that they bear a direct relation to speech. Argues that writing serves as a model for various properties of speech including sentences, words, and phonemes. Concludes that literacy contributes to conceptual structure of…

A study compared the use of mnemonic strategies in using pictures for enhancing acquisition of the form and sounding of Hebrew letters by students (ages 10-15) with mild mental retardation. Results indicate that the students who were taught the mnemonic strategies learned significantly more letters than controls. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

This study showed that the Elementary Perceiver and Memorizer (EPAM) can explain letter recognition phenomena earlier simulated by the connectionist Interactive Activation Model of word perception. EAPM, a model of learning and recognition in the form of a computer program, has previously explained many aspects of learning and perception. (TJH)

Tests the statement in "Becoming a Nation of Readers" that kindergartners can name an average of 14 letters. Finds that a more realistic distribution is bi-modal in that most kindergartners know 8 or fewer letters, and only a few can name more than 20 letters. (RS)

Discusses a new approach to teaching letters of the alphabet, one which focuses on studying letters and sounds in authentic contexts. Emphasizes that children's interests, rather than a teacher's desire to pass through the letters of the alphabet in direct sequence, should direct curriculum. Alphabet learning can be integrated into other classroom…

Poor spellers in second grade (N=128) participated in sessions that included direct instruction in the alphabet principle, modeling of different approaches for developing connections between spoken and written words, and practice in composing. Results of this multilayered approach are discussed, including evidence that training in spelling…