Research suggests that there are three subgroups among poor readers, each with different patterns of skills, and that diagnosticians should look for an imbalance of skills, rather than any set assortment of strengths and weaknesses. (MKM)

Examines the gains in single word recognition and oral reading fluency made by low-progress readers after an intensive, systematic skills-based reading program. Reports that the results did not support the hypothesis because both groups of low-progress readers made gains on the reading measures. Includes references. (CMK)

Examined whether measures used to identify children at risk for reading failure are appropriate for children from different language backgrounds. Tasks assessing literacy and phonological skills and language processing at the beginning and end of kindergarten were administered to 40 native English speakers, 59 bilingual children, and 60 children…

Compares the reading ability of children with dyslexic parents and/or older siblings to children with no family incidence of dyslexia. Finds that many children from dyslexic families developed reading problems by the end of second grade. Discusses implications of the results for etiological theories of dyslexia. (RS)

Evaluates children at-risk for reading failure as kindergartners and again as first graders. Suggests that lexical access ability is an important factor in reading acquisition and that different combinations of phonological processes may be related to different aspects of reading. (RS)

In this study, Reading Recovery teachers reported the program plans for students who had not successfully discontinued the Reading Recovery program. Despite the existence of policy and monitoring devices in New Jersey, a number of schools did not have plans in place to offer ongoing intensive literacy instruction for their lowest-performing…

Boys Town cares for boys and girls (average age 15 years) who are socially and emotionally at risk because of problems such as chronic neglect or abuse, broken homes, and school failure. The majority are behaviorally disordered and emotionally impaired. Within a week of coming to Boys Town, students take the Diagnostic Assessments of Reading Test.…

The series of studies discussed here was designed to provide an extensive investigation into the hypothesis that reading disabilities and deficits in selective attention are related. Three studies were carried out on three different groups of children from first grade through sixth grade, and five different tasks were employed. Subjects were…

This report describes the efforts of the California State Department of Education in response to a 1975-76 evaluation report which indicated that in some schools, third grade reading scores were declining--specifically in schools whose entering students averaged below the twentieth percentile on the 1973-74 Entry Level Test (ELT) after three years…

Eighty disadvantaged black third grade students were administered both reading achievement and oral language tests to determine whether the phonology, morphology, and grammar of Black English dialect have more effect on the below-average readers of the group than on those students making satisfactory reading progress. Student scores on the…

In order to discover whether there were any inner-city elementary schools in Massachusetts which were successful in teaching children to read, a two-year study was undertaken. Results of the study, reported in this document, showed that there is no one pattern for success but that there is a process by which schools, either alone or in…

An abbreviated battery of eight screening tests was administered to 407 White first-grade boys. Discriminant analysis showed that 75 percent of those identified as being at high risk of reading failure did exhibit severe or mild comprehension problems in third grade. (Author/SJL)

A study examined the reading problems of adults in Newfoundland (Canada) with low reading ability. It explored the genesis of these problems through a retrospective analysis of their lives as school children; and determined the relationship between literacy development and personal background factors, school factors, physiological factors, and…

There is a growing awareness among researchers that the magnitude of cognitive sex differences is affected by a number of subject variables. To examine spatial and verbal cognitive sex differences as a function of personal and family handedness, the 478 offspring who participated in the Minnesota family study and 454 offspring who participated in…

Thirty-one first grade students from four schools participated in an investigation of the attitudes toward beginning reading held by children from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Two of the schools were in inner-city, predominantly low-income, minority areas; one was in a middle-income area with approximately 27% minority enrollment, and one…