The product of a two-year study investigating the literacy behavior of nine kindergarten students and their classmates, this report first explains the impetus and the theoretical foundations for the investigation and describes its subjects and setting. It then presents the methodology and the data collected from several related studies: (1)…

The literature review reported in this paper was conducted to increase an awareness of the positive effects that parents can have on their children's reading progress. The 36 annotations resulting from the review are organized under the following categories: (1) parental factors influencing reading development in children, including the effects of…

The 12 articles in this publication contain information designed to help parents of preschool and elementary school children understand the complex psychological and sociological process of language development and its relationship to learning to read. The articles also provide specific suggestions for parents who wish to participate in their…

An examination is made of proposals for early reading in terms of the best time for beginning instruction and the effects upon children. In any discussion regarding early reading one must distinguish between prereading activities and formal reading instruction and must determine whether formal instruction is intended for all children or for those…

This document reports an investigation of the developmental changes in the use of certain syntactic structures by white, monolingual, middle class five- and seven-year-olds, and of the differences between the syntax of young children and that used in beginning reading textbooks. Approximately half of the publication presents the methods and…

This document, which contains sixteen reports, focuses on various aspects of the teaching of reading. Report topics are: individualized reading, language experiences in reading, beginning reading, readiness in reading, an approach using decoding, recognizing and stimulating reading interests, functional reading in the junior high school, study…

The effects of teaching prereading skills to kindergarteners on their reading readiness scores were investigated. Seventeen kindergartens providing a cross section of socioeconomic levels and representing different ethnic groups were selected. Each experimental school was then matched to a control school. In the experimental schools, six major…

Contrasts the effects of a storybook reading approach to traditional reading readiness approaches on the literacy development of urban at-risk kindergarten children. Finds that the storybook reading groups scored significantly higher on a variety of literacy measures. Finds no significant differences between the groups on standardized measures of…

Presents the 1998 position statement regarding early literacy development formulated by the International Reading Association and the National Association for the Education of Young Children. Outlines issues and reviews research. Offers a set of principles and recommendations for teaching practices and public policy. Includes a continuum of…

Promotion of literacy is one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to form collaboration among parents, teachers, and community. This article offers ideas from teachers, professional organizations, and the U.S. Department of Education on how to develop parent participation in the promotion of literacy at children's various levels of development.…

This digest links the development of listening comprehension to the emerging reading comprehension of young American Indian students, and suggests ways that teachers can use locally produced materials to enhance young students' emergent literacy. Reading comprehension is the key to literacy, and prior knowledge supports listening and reading…

The first volume of this final report of a large study that detailed the day-to-day workings of, and student response to, two philosophically different approaches to reading readiness as they were used in six Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) kindergartens reports on the literate environment approach. The background section explains that this approach…

Designed to assist the parent in providing language learning opportunities to children at home from infancy through first grade, this practically oriented guidebook includes activities for early childhood to develop sensory awareness and to encourage directed play, investigation, and exploration. Exercises are designed to develop physical…

The performance of 68 preschool children, ages three (28), four (21), and five (19), on selected phoneme-grapheme correspondence tasks was analyzed for age and sex differences in two stages of data collection. First, the children spelled their first names and the initial of their last names with letters on a magnetic board, after which they…

Specific reading program objectives are included in this guide in the areas of prereading; word recognition; comprehension; study skills; and attitudes, interests, and values. Methods of determining reading ability by diagnosis and methods for estimating reading potential are discussed. Factors involved in early reading experiences which are…