Explains new research findings about how children learn letter-sound correspondences, relates the findings to whole-language reading instruction, and outlines a theory for how children acquire the letter-sound system without direct instruction in phonics. Describes recent findings on phonological processes involved in learning letter-sound…

Three experiments on vowel decoding involving primary school children partially tested an interactive model of reading acquisition. The model suggests that children begin learning to read by establishing orthographic recognition units for words that have phonological underpinning that is initially at the onset-rime level but that becomes…

The student reader-workbook, third part of the "Chaa'" series, presents activities for the student to do orally and in writing. Pages are divided into four frames with the intention of completing each frame before continuing to the next frame in sequence. To allow children an opportunity to decode words at an early age, the code emphasis (phonics)…

This study focuses on the relationship between blending ability and reading comprehension among 80 prereading children from three private preschools. Three methods of instruction were tested: One group was instructed with an auditory method; the second group was instructed with an auditory-visual method; and the third group practiced the basic set…

The nature and use of contractions and abbreviations in beginning reading is discussed and applied to the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Mod 2 Reading Program, a four-year program (K-3) for teaching reading skills to primary-grade children. The contractions and abbreviations are listed and sequenced for the reading program. The results of…

Speech research suggests why phoneme segmentation is more difficult than syllable segmentation. This study provides direct evidence of a developmental ordering of syllable and phoneme segmentation abilities in the young child. By means of a task which required preschool, kindergarten, and first grade children to tap out the number of segments in…

Supports the view that letter-name knowledge aids the child in learning to read. (RL)

Discusses the steps involved in and the preparation necessary for learning to read (decode) and to comprehend what is read. (JM)

The criteria of 75 percent utility for phonetic rules to be used in reading instruction may be based on faulty logic. Once children achieve approximate pronunciation by applying phonetic rules, they usually can infer proper pronunciation. This supports teaching children to find and pronounce little words in larger unknown words. (MCK)

Study results do not demonstrate that early reading is made possible by precocity in speech-sound segmentation, blending, or discrimination ability, but that the complex skill involving the manipulation of sounds in temporal order may be more closely related to early reading ability. (AEA)

Explores children's ability to segment utterances into syllables and phonemes, and their skills in the recall of sentences of low and high complexity. (HOD)

Discusses the hazards that the English language contains for children learning to read, reports the Bullock Report's recommendation to judge I.T.A. on its merits, and describes research findings suggesting that the probability of reading failure is considerably greater when T.O. is used than when I.T.A. is used. (GT)

Describes several studies examining how children become skilled at processing graphic cues. Reports that prereaders do not acquire graphic skills by learning to read signs and labels in their environment. Concludes that mastery of letters is required for processing graphic cues. (MM)

Thirty children with mild mental retardation were compared with 30 children of the same age and 26 children matched for verbal age without mental retardation on a forward digit span task. The highly significant group difference was reduced to nonsignificance when a measure of central executive functioning was covaried out. (Author/CR)