The purpose of this practicum was to develop a supplemental reading program to meet the reading needs of upper-grade pupils in the elementary school. This program utilizes commercial television programs as the medium for: viewing of the taped program; reading of the program script; instruction in word knowledge, decoding, and comprehension skills…

An instructional system designed to implement the objectives of the Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) Reading Program is currently under development. This document defines the program objectives, content, content sequence, and pedagogical strategies for each outcome area. A description of the program's instructional activities, their sequence,…

The Wisconsin Prototypic System of Reading Skill Development is described. The sequential arrangement of behavioral objectives in the word attack component is discussed. Basic linguistic concepts underlying the specification of these behavioral objectives are also considered. (Author)

A highly reproducible scale of difficulty of word identification tasks was identified for both good and poor readers: consonant-vowel combinations and short vowel words were learned first. Long vowel words, special rule words, and nonsense words were more difficult. Reading instruction should parallel this sequence since it follows learning…

Shows that word discriminability and contextual complexity have significant developmental effects on word identification, reflecting the growth of meaningful reading with age. (RL)

Reports on three experiments that explored the metalinguistic competence of 26 deaf students to segment and manipulate their fingerspelled lexicons. Indicates their metalinguistic sophistication correlated selectively and significantly with reading success. Also reports on a training experiment that showed that deaf students identified more sight…

Determined the strategies adults used as they read. Results revealed two stages of reading development: (1) a reliance equally on print and language based strategies with no integration of the two, and (2) increased ability to use language knowledge to integrate and predict as they read. (SRT)

This digest summarizes what is known about teaching the processes of phonological awareness and word recognition. It finds unequivocal research evidence that students who enter first grade with phonological awareness skills are more successful readers and urges explicit instruction in these skills. Examples of phonological awareness activities and…

Investigates the theory that readers might mediate the recognition of an unfamiliar word by comparing and contrasting that word to known words by studying a population of fourth- and fifth-grade readers who could correctly pronounce common one- and two-syllabe words but not common polysyllabic words. (HOD)

Common misconceptions about children's reading difficulties are discussed, and practical suggestions for classroom remedies are presented. (LH)

The development of four-year-old children's knowledge of letters and printed words was studied to determine if preschool children begin reading, and if so, how. A natural hierarchy of knowledge was noted. (MKM)

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)

Findings from a study of 504 second grade students indicate that phonics knowledge has a causal impact on both reading comprehension and vocabulary gains; reading comprehension has a causal effect on vocabulary gains. (Author/IAH)

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)

Using poor and normal readers, three studies evaluated semantic coding and phonological coding deficits as explanations for reading disability. It was concluded that semantic coding deficits are unlikely causes of difficulties in poor readers in early stages but accrue with prolonged reading difficulties in older readers. Phonological coding…