The aim of this study was to examine predictions derived from a proposal about the relation between word-decoding skill and working memory capacity, called verbal efficiency theory. The theory states that poor word representations and slow decoding processes consume resources in working memory that would otherwise be used to execute high-level…

Spoken English has a stress-alternating rhythm that is not marked in its orthography. In two experiments, the authors evaluated whether stylistic alterations to print that marked stress pulses fostered the rendering of rhythm (experiment 1) and stress (experiment 2) during silent reading. In experiment 1, silent readers rated the helpfulness of…

A growing literature has demonstrated that prosodic sensitivity is related to early literacy development; however, the precise nature of this relationship remains unclear. It has been speculated in recent theoretical models that the observed relationship between prosodic sensitivity and early literacy might be partially mediated by children's…

We report an empirical comparison of the effectiveness of two theoretically motivated computer-assisted reading interventions (CARI) based on the Finnish GraphoGame CARI: English GraphoGame Rime (GG Rime) and English GraphoGame Phoneme (GG Phoneme). Participants were 6-7-year-old students who had been identified by their teachers as being…

Parental writing support was examined over time and in relation to children's language and literacy skills. Seventy-seven parents and their preschoolers were videotaped writing an invitation together twice during one year. Parental writing support was coded at the level of the letter to document parents' graphophonemic support…

The present study compared the effects of different mediation routines provided to kindergartners from families of low socioeconomic status on the students' invented spelling attempts and on their gains obtained on spelling and other early literacy skills (letter naming, sounds of letters, word segmentation, and word decoding). The effects of the…

Practitioners are increasingly expected to provide reading instruction to students with intellectual disabilities to help them become literate. Whereas explicit, systematic reading instruction is effective at preventing reading difficulties for most young children, its effectiveness for children with intellectual disabilities remains unclear. The…

Examines the effects of onset and rime awareness on children's recognition of spelling patterns in written words. Reports that onset-rime awareness was associated with word ending similarities, whereas word beginning analogies appeared to involve higher-level phonological skills. Suggests longitudinal research regarding the issue. (SG)

Compares the dependence of Hebrew-reading children and adults on graphemes and their translation to phonemes while reading. Concludes that when written Hebrew words are being named by both children and adults, their graphemes are phonemically recorded, with the effect being more pronounced in children. (AEA)

Reports on a longitudinal study which found that letter-naming speed was strongly associated with subsequent progress in reading for kindergarten children but not for second grade children. Suggests that code emphasis should not be overlooked in beginning reading. (ARH)

Finds that an onset/rime analogy explanation accounted for the children's correct recodings of pseudowords better than a phoneme blending explanation, that the number of pseudowords children recoded correlated with the number of conventional words they recoded, and that children who were better able to conserve parts and wholes recoded more…

Research shows that a simple 23 element syllabary can be acquired with ease by innercity and suburban kindergartners. See related article by Kenneth S. Goodman, CS 705 852. (Author/RB)

Reports a study concluding that first grade children did not have strong preconceptions of letter-sound relationships when they entered school but their year-end responses were significantly more like adult responses. No differences were found between speakers of black English and white English. (TO)

Two studies were designed to investigate the role of morphemic structure on students' word reading. The first study asked whether familiar morphemes in words facilitate word reading for elementary students. Results showed that lower and upper elementary students read words with two morphemes (derived words with a base word and one suffix, such as…

This is a compilation of reports on international literacy research. The report includes 4 separate reports on Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. In the first report, research correspondent Marta Infante reports on two studies that reflect the growing interest of Chilean professionals in studying reading-related factors such as phonemic…