Twenty-eight learned helpless children (ages 9-13) assessed as reading below grade level were randomly assigned to one of four reinforcement and attribution retaining treatments. Indirect and direct attribution retaining increased childrens' reading persistence and their attribution of failure on the Intellectual Achievement Responsibility scale…

Examined ways early childhood teachers in three Australian schools rationalized children's literacy failure on Queensland's Year 2 Diagnostic Net. Found that teachers' narratives clustered into three groups: blaming families, blaming children, and moving beyond blame to focus on teaching; all teachers based pedagogical intervention decisions on a…

Many parents question what is normal and what their kids should be doing at different ages. More and more, parents are turning to their local libraries for advice. Besides being empathetic supporters and referring parents to the rich resources within our libraries that detail language-development milestones for young children, librarians need to…

Socioeconomic gradients and growth-mixture model trajectories of word-reading achievement were examined from kindergarten to Grade 5 in all the children who entered kindergarten within a school district and started receiving literacy-intensive instruction from that point on. In kindergarten, the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and…

Of all human maladies which account for learning disabilities among young and old alike, few remain as poorly understood and inconclusively defined as dyslexia. The general public perceives dyslexia to be a reading problem; some psychologists believe that dyslexia can stem from a low socio-economic status; educators see the term as involving…

THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN APPROACH FOR SYSTEMATICALLY DEVELOPING AND INTERRELATING ORAL LANGUAGE AND READING BEHAVIORS WAS BASED ON A RESEARCH STUDY OF LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND READING WHOLLY CONCERNED WITH THE EDUCATIONALLY DISADVANTAGED, SPANISH-SPEAKING CHILD IN TEXAS. THE APPROACH WAS DEVELOPED FROM A STUDY OF A PARTICULAR GROUP OF CHILDREN…

Students who speak in a jargon related to, but different from, Standard American English and students who know a single or limited word meaning but are unable to translate that word into a new subject area content both need reading instruction as though Standard American English were their second language. All content area teachers must teach…

Senior scientists representing a variety of research-oriented disciplines examine the reading process. Among the topics discussed are visual perception, the processing of written information, models for reading and speech, the relationship of spelling to sound, and areas of needed research. Also discussed are the influences of grammatical…

The causes of reading problems were studied in order to plan and implement reading programs for their prevention and correction. Some of the environmental causes related to socioeconomic disadvantagement which were discussed are distracting family problems, frequent moving, and few educational-related activities in the home. The family life is…

Every year the purchase of unsuitable books for disadvantaged children wastes millions of dollars. The use of these unsuitable books results in extensive reading failure. In order to overcome this waste of money and human resources, book committees need to employ standards and methods of evaluation to identify books appropriate for disadvantaged…

The disagreement on terminology used to describe reading difficulties and to classify reading underachievers is illustrated. Some of the research findings on physical, intellectual, emotional, and educational factors which cause reading difficulty are described, with emphasis on replying to questions asked by parents and on clarifying some…

These conference proceedings report the discussions of classroom teachers and university professors relating to the problems of teaching disadvantaged students. Topics treated were the inadequacies of teacher training, need for self-analysis during training, teaching of reading, grouping students for instruction, and the relation of the schools to…

The Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.), devised by Sir James Pitman as a simplified alphabet for beginning readers, consists of 44 characters plus a set of rules for standard spellings of English words using these characters. The characters and rules are designed to ensure easy transition from i.t.a. to traditional orthography (T.O.). In September…

The investigation reported in this volume attempts to clarify some issues relating to the existence, nature, and causes of specific dyslexia. Based on an extended study of 98 boys of at least average intelligence with severe reading and spelling problems, the report provides detailed data relating to their developmental and perinatal histories,…

The "Right to Read" goal set by James E. Allen, Jr., former United States Commissioner of Education, is evaluated through a series of interviews with 25 leading authorities in reading. Allen's address is included in its entirety. The comments of the reading authorities, who often disagree among themselves, reflect the impact that the…