Games Based Learning needs to be linked to good learning theory to become an important educational intervention. This study examines the effectiveness of a collection of computer games called Neurogames®. Neurogames are a group of computer games aimed at improving reading and basic maths and are designed using neuropsychological theory. The…

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a global effort to assess reading literacy. The authors of this article focus on the variable of engagement--the student characteristic on PISA that had the largest correlation with achievement in reading. Next, salient findings related to engagement from three English-speaking PISA…

The Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) will establish technical standards and guidelines to ensure that the survey design and implementation processes of PIAAC yield high-quality and internationally comparable data. This document provides a revised version of the technical standards and guidelines originally…

Executive functions, including inhibition, have been implicated in children's reading ability. This study investigates whether children's performance on an inhibition task is more indicative of reading ability than a measure of another executive function, that is, planning. Fifty-three male participants were administered a reading test and tests…

The National Year of Reading, launched in January, is intended "offer the chance to create a network of activity and engagement, which will move the literacy agenda to the next level and lead to a lasting legacy in attitudes, activity and participation, and put in place the building blocks for systemic change..." The people behind…

This paper reports the findings of study into children's self-perceptions of reading, with a particular emphasis on the perceived use of reading scheme material. Using a collective case study approach, two cohorts of children (six in Nursery and six in Reception) were followed over the course of one academic year. This study employed a range of…

Based on Moje et al.'s (2004) conceptions of "third space theory", this article describes how five nursery-aged children created a "third space" between home and school, in order to find continuity between home and school constructions of reading. This article describes how the children used various aspects of their home…

Background: Bishop and Snowling (2004) proposed that children with language impairments (LI) and children with reading difficulties (RD) can be considered to be on a (phonological) continuum of risk for reading impairments. Aims: The first aim of the present study was to address two specific hypotheses about the relationship between RD and LI. The…

This study investigated the phonological awareness skills of a group of deaf adolescents and how these skills correlated with decoding skills (single word and non-word reading) and receptive vocabulary. Twenty, congenitally profoundly deaf adolescents with at least average nonverbal cognitive skills were tested on a range of phonological awareness…

Background: Children with phonological problems are a significant proportion of many therapists' caseloads. However, little is known about current clinical practice with these children or whether research on the effects of therapy have influenced this practice. Aims: To investigate the methods of assessment and remediation used by therapists…

A behavioral genetic analysis of general writing ability was conducted using teacher assessments based on UK National Curriculum criteria for a sample of 3296 same-sex pairs of 7-year-old twins. Writing was highly heritable within the normal range (0.66) and at the low extreme (0.70). Environmental influences were almost all non-shared, with…

New research shows that adults with the lowest literacy and numeracy skills are likely to have experienced substantial disadvantage from early childhood. As the journeys of many adult learners attest, education can transform opportunity. What is more likely to motivate them to take up an educational offer is a life course transition or a new…

Background: Awareness of individual phonemes in words is a late-acquired level of phonological awareness that usually develops in the early school years. It is generally agreed to have a close relationship with early literacy development, but its role in speech change is less well understood. Speech and language therapy for children with speech…

The relationship between home and school is often raised in public discussion about boys' education as an aspect of boys' overall lower achievement in school, and particularly in literacy, relative to girls. A critical review of two influential Australian and one UK government commissioned reports into boys' education sets the scene for our…

14,000 Saudi students are currently studying in the UK. Before they start their coursework in their major, most take English language courses for at least a year and should pass the IELTS test. Interviews with a sample of Saudi students studying in the UK showed that focus in the English courses that students take is mainly on grammar and written…