The first major section of this report describes in detail an information-integration theory which seeks to explain how an organism selects information and integrates it with other information from the environment and from the organism's internal processes. The model treats information as a pattern of neural activity composed of a plethora of unit…

A recent finding that good and poor readers may bring different response patterns to the reading task comes from a pilot study in which so-called good readers achieved a higher score on a comprehension test than did poor readers, even when they had not had a paragraph or story to read as a basis for answering the questions. This study was a more…

In separate articles three authors discuss (1) the beneficial "normalizing effect" of mainstreaming for handicapped students; (2) how to help the nonreader in music class; and (3) what a research study has shown about wind instrument instruction for educable mentally handicapped (EMH) students. (SJL)

Presents a study evaluating the effect of reading intervention with children at risk of reading failure. Explains the program spanned 10 weeks and emphasized word building and phonics skills. States there is a need for continual support as opposed to a short intervention. Includes references. (CMK)

The performance of good and poor readers was compared on a series of three visually presented paired associate tasks varying the verbal codability level of response items. Performance of the 32 poor readers was significantly lower than that of the 32 good readers across all three tasks. There were no differences between good and poor readers in…

Given a consistent interaction of student locus of attribution and mode of teacher response, the study sought to determine whether attribution levels could be changed for 69 elementary grade learning disabled students and poor readers. The results indicate that difficulty is encountered in trying to change students' attributions, (Author/SEW)

Describes a technique that used ambiguously drawn pictures of scenes depicting various aspects of the reading process to elicit imaginative reactions by fifth-grade boys. Results suggest that the high achieving readers had significantly more positive attitudes toward reading than did low achieving readers. (FL)

Describes an applied training study investigating the differential effect of two instructional methods on the reading performance of British primary school children with reading difficulties. Explains that children ages 7 to 10 (n=65) were separated into two groups: (1) based on different types of phonological awareness instruction, and (2) a…

A study determined classroom teachers' opinions of causal factors of reading failure and reported their attitudes on the major issues in reading instruction as suggested in current research. A representative sample of 100 elementary classroom teachers from School District #299 in the Chicago, Illinois area were sent the Ross Reading Survey. A…

Based upon the assumption that the teacher is the single most important factor in the development of reading skills, this volume provides information concerning different aspects of why citizens need to read and how teachers can aid in this process. Included in "why to read" are insights into the multifaceted aspects of communication, the…

A multivariate analysis of variance, using three factors obtained from a preschool developmental index (Neale Scales) as the dependent variables, and group membership based on subsequent longitudinal reading performance as the independent variables, resulted in a significant multivariate F for a sample of 204 kindergarten children. (Author/SBH)

A total of 125 7-year-old students who were poor readers were assigned to 1 of 4 experimental teaching conditions: reading with phonology, reading alone, phonology alone, or a control. Although the phonology alone group showed the most improvement on phonological tasks, the reading with phonology group made the most progress in reading…

Analyzes transfer of language skills from Shona to English in rural primary schools in Zimbabwe to determine appropriate time for introducing reading in English. Analysis of data indicated little evidence of transfer of language skills between languages and suggests a delay in the introduction of L2 reading. (Author/LMO)

Compared the effects of TEACH, a perceptual remediation approach, to those of phonetic tutoring on first graders whose performance in the SEARCH Program during kindergarten indicated they were at risk for reading failure. There was no evidence for significant academic effects of participation in the TEACH program for at-risk children. (GLR)

The purpose of this report is to provide education professors teaching early literacy methods courses with information for beginning teachers to support struggling first-grade readers. This analysis identifies the specific word structures children are expected to know by the end of first grade, and shows the actual learning rates of these…