Comparison of the individual reading strategies of 26 severely impaired developmental dyslexics and 26 nonhandicapped readers found a distribution of skills and strategies over a continuum in both groups. Dyslexic students were specifically impaired in phonological processing, and half of them employed more whole-word oriented strategies than the…

Discusses two studies conducted in the same classroom at overlapping times that contain apparent contradictions about the teacher's effectiveness and the nature of discussions in his classroom. Concludes that the forms and mechanisms for conducting this type of research are inadequate and that the inherent issues of subjectivity and objectivity…

Relates a teacher's observations of first graders in a whole language classroom enabling each other to read. Suggests reading techniques which foster this collaborative learning. (PRA)

Reviews research supporting the use of writing to develop reading ability, highlighting findings that writing exercises improve reading comprehension, recall, and retention of texts. (PAA)

Argues that the field of education has produced and absorbed a steady barrage of information about the threats and causes of illiteracy. Contends that the field has managed to demystify the wondrous and profound acts of reading and writing. Concludes that research on reader response has much to offer in the rehumanization of literacy. (RS)

Explores the types of responses of urban first graders when asked to predict a narrative ending and to determine whether there were differences in responses from fall to spring. Indicates that first graders are capable of responding with both convergent and divergent predictions at the beginning and end of first grade. (MG)

Investigates the effects of purpose for reading and frequency of encounters with unknown words in written context on learning from context tasks performed by 119 sixth grade good and poor reading comprehenders. Finds no significant interactions, resulting at least partial support for Robert Sternberg's model of verbal comprehension. (MG)

Focuses on the relationship between the development of segmental awareness and dyslexia. Finds that students in two training programs that taught the skills required to use phonemes performed as well as normal readers on phoneme segmentation tasks. Notes that the improvements were correlated in dictation but not in reading. (RS)

Finds greater interference for words than for single letters and letter-clusters in elementary students. Finds a developmental trend from relative skill in word-level orthographic-phonological correspondence in second graders to relative skill in subword-level correspondences in sixth graders. Notes that multiple orthographic codes were correlated…

Concludes children benefit from teacher training in integrating environmental print into the curriculum; logos selected for classroom use should come from children's immediate environment; instruction should include experiences with manuscript forms of the logos; and children who are encouraged to bring to class examples of environmental print…

Applies inverse Bayesian analyses to data from three large family studies of reading disability to estimate posterior probability that an offspring will be affected. Finds that offspring risk rates were significantly elevated if a parent reported a history of reading disability. Suggests the use of family history as a component in clinical…

Investigates genetic influences on reading in a sample of 285, 13-year-old twins. Finds the heritability of disability for reading recognition to be nonsignificant but that spelling had a substantial genetic contribution to all levels of disability. Suggests two possible independent aspects of phonological ability, each influenced by genetic…

Applies an extension of an earlier multiple regression model for twin analysis to the problem of detecting linkage in a quantitative trait. Detects a number of possible linkages, indicating that the approach is effective. Discusses detecting genotype-environment interaction and the issue of power. (RS)

Evaluates a substantially updated version of the "classical" idea of a significant relationship in dyslexic children between cerebral lateralization and their word decoding deficits. Finds further evidence that dyslexia is not related to incomplete lateralization. Suggests that dyslexics suffer from exuberant right hemisphere processing in…

Suggests the contribution of analogies to text comprehension. Demonstrates that analogies are not functional in text comprehension, but instead they impair recall and inhibit processing. Considers the possible role of analogies as contributors to the aesthetics of an informative text. (HB)