The purpose of this study was to identify kindergarteners at risk for language and reading disorders and to determine predictors. A representative sample of 311 kindergarteners in general education classrooms in the U.S. Midwest were assessed with the Well Screening in fall, winter, and spring. Groups were compared using analysis of variance…

Purpose: There are well-established links between oral language and reading development in monolingual English-speaking children that are associated with literacy outcomes. Oral language, defined relative to lexical quality, provides key support for developing early reading skills. For bilingual children, the connection between oral language and…

Response to Intervention (RtI) has brought about significant changes in the way schools provide educational support for students at risk for reading difficulty. Much of the research on RtI has focused on evidence-based interventions that are typically offered outside of the regular classroom, with less attention given to instruction that is part…

At-risk prekindergarten students (i.e., low SES, speech-language impaired) typically lag behind their peers in phonological awareness and other emergent literacy skills such as letter knowledge and vocabulary (Duursma et al., 2008; Lundberg, 2009). However, there is a limited amount of research that has studied the efficacy of phonological…

This study investigates the effects and feasibility of an intervention for first-grade students at risk for reading difficulties or disabilities (RD). The intervention was provided by general education classroom teachers and consisted of 15 min whole-class comprehension lessons (Tier 1) and 30 min Tier 2 intervention sessions in word reading,…

Early literacy skills are the foundation for school success. This is particularly important for groups of children at heightened risk of poor educational outcomes, such as English language learners and children from low-income families. Informed by a growing body of research and evaluation studies that point to the importance of home literacy…

The current article examines what factors explained the success of a reading program delivered by older adult volunteers to at-risk early readers. The article also examines the direction of the relationship over time (both direct and mediated) between reading achievement, frequency of reading at home, and academic self-beliefs. Two hundred and…

This study compared the reading gains of Kindergarten students who were at risk for reading failure who were taught with either a structured supplemental reading program or with teacher-designed or teacher-selected instruction. The authors used a quasi-experimental design with preexisting groups to examine changes from pretest to posttest.…

This study examined the predictive validity of combinations of progress-monitoring measures: (a) curriculum-embedded phonemic awareness and alphabetic/decoding measures, and (b) Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS; Good & Kaminski, 2002) nonsense word fluency and phoneme segmentation fluency on reading outcomes of…

This study examined the efficacy of using Headsprout Early Reading (Headsprout, 2007) to supplement a balanced literacy curriculum for kindergarten and first grade students in a suburban public school system. Headsprout, which is an example of computer aided instruction (CAI), provided internet-based, supplemental reading instruction that…

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether there are systematic differences in literacy skills among children from less-advantaged households, using latent profile analysis. Early reading skills were measured using the Early Arithmetic, Reading, and Learning Indicators (EARLI; DiPerna, Morgan, & Lei, 2007) literacy tasks.…

Six instructional assistants taught the Early Reading Intervention (ERI) curriculum to 38 at-risk kindergarten students, and 32 nonrisk students served as comparisons. Student risk was determined based on performance on the "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills" subtests of Nonsense Word Fluency, Letter Naming Fluency, and…

Accurate identification of at-risk kindergarten and 1st-grade students through early reading screening is an essential element of responsiveness to intervention models of reading instruction. The authors consider predictive validity and classification accuracy of early reading screening assessments with attention to sensitivity and specificity.…

This study examined the impact of Oregon Reading First on student reading outcomes. Outcomes in schools that began Reading First implementation in 2003-2004 (Cohort A) were compared to outcomes in schools that began Reading First implementation in 2005-2006 (Cohort B). The primary hypothesis, that experienced Cohort A schools would outperform…

Reading fluency is a critical yet commonly neglected component of early reading instruction. For the large percentage of English language learners (ELLs) who are struggling with or at risk for reading difficulties, there is insufficient research available to help educators implement time-efficient interventions with these students. Using an…