The authors reviewed studies on teaching reading comprehension to students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) with a focus on text (academic reading) comprehension and sight word (functional) comprehension. Eleven of 754 studies met the inclusion criteria: participants with ASD, published in English in a peer-reviewed journal, and use of an…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between treatment-induced changes in academic achievement and social skills in elementary school-age children with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. A sample of 123 children in grades 1 through 4 with symptoms of inattention, impulsivity and/or hyperactivity, and significant…

Supplemental Educational Services (SES), a federally mandated program, is designed to raise student achievement via the implementation of tutoring programs. Unfortunately, although the SES federal legislation has been adopted by school districts nationally, relatively limited empirical evidence from rigorous research studies exists regarding the…

Research has shown a relationship between mothers' beliefs about literacy, their educational and socioeconomic backgrounds, and their children's emergent literacy awareness. Many Australian Indigenous children experience educational disadvantage, as do children whose parents are manual workers. One recommendation that is frequently made is for…

A cell-by-cell analysis of finger movements of 16 blind adolescent braille readers was conducted to separate, catalog, and measure the components of scanning movements across braille cells as a function of reading proficiency. Results confirmed the superiority of bimanual reading and suggested that the two hands may perform different functions.…

A battery of various tasks was used with nine children with Down syndrome (ages 5 to 8) to assess their phonological awareness and basic reading skills. Results suggest that children with Down syndrome are at risk for reading acquisition difficulties due to reduced phonological awareness skills and that these deficits are in addition to delays…

This study of 12 individuals with blindness or low vision extended earlier studies by Morton Heller concerning speed and accuracy of reading noncanonical (tilted) braille text. Results were similar for Heller's original character set (B-J), but the effect of orientation was reduced with other letters and whole words, especially for experienced…

Aims to assess relationships between phonological tasks, determine their degree of convergence, and investigate the predictive power of different tasks. Ten phonological awareness tasks were administered to 58 kindergarten children whose reading abilities were assessed one year later. Seven measures were moderately related to reading ability and…

This study compared 18 high-ability and average-ability secondary level deaf readers on 5 indicators of cognitive processes used during reading. Results indicated significant differences between groups on measures of fluency. However, intergroup similarities in processes suggest that these components do not determine reading superiority.…

Compares the skills and styles necessary to read articles in the "American Historical Review" 100 years ago and today. Analyzes five types of reading and notes that historians may combine two or more of these types. Discusses a type of reading called dialogic reading and argues that it offers insight into historiography. (CFR)

This latest annually produced Iowa Kids Count data book, "Iowa Kids Count 2009: Trends in the Well-Being of Iowa Children," provides data on 18 different indicators of child and family well-being at the United States, Iowa, substate and county-level. The 18 indicators presented in the data book contain an expanse of data from economic,…

"Focus on Basics" is the quarterly publication of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. It presents best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used by adult basic education teachers, counselors, program administrators, and policymakers. "Focus on Basics" is…

Designed to assess comprehension of written ambiguous and polysemous structures, this instrument is a series of written statements that include varying degrees and types of ambiguity. In the first part of the test students are asked to identify (from a choice of three) semantically acceptable paraphrases for an initial sentence. Then students must…

Two word/nonword decision experiments were carried out to investigate differences in reading between congenitally blind children reading Braille and sighted children dealing with print. Three aspects of single-word recognition were studied: semantic processing, word frequency effects, and phonological recoding. (Author/RH)

The statistical properties of curriculum-based time-series data were investigated for 67 learning disabled students (grades 1-7). Results suggest that reading growth over time may be described by a negatively accelerated curve and that the statistical characteristics of time-series data are not necessarily independent in naturally occurring data.…