Claims that Miller's book is admirably clear and comprehensive on current thinking in early literacy, noting Miller's refutation of the concept of reading readiness. Suggests the book would be particularly useful for students in initial teacher training courses, not just those intending to work with young children. Questions preoccupation with…

Describes the history of early childhood intervention programs. Outlines research results related to the effects of the programs. Discusses the fadeout phenomenon of the graduates of the programs. Presents an introduction of the "Success for All" program in Baltimore. (YP)

The purpose of a 1992 course on emergent literacy in early childhood education was to formulate a shared definition of literacy; create awareness of the developmental process involved; test previous assumptions, methods, and techniques in the light of new knowledge; and develop pedagogic approaches and curricula relevant to the existing conditions…

Compared social-linguistic experiences of six early readers (ERs) and six prereading (PRs) matched-age peers in interactions with their middle-class parents. Found that ER parents created an even more enriched language environment for their children than PR parents. Differences on decontextualized language tasks favored ER families, and ERs gave…

The infant-toddler years are incredibly important in producing a nation of readers. Every family can, in culturally appropriate ways, help infants and toddlers learn to read the world. Every caregiver can, in culturally appropriate ways, help infants and toddlers grow in language and literacy. The authors argue that early childhood programs must…

Two research studies hold promise of assisting educators in developing appropriate recommendations for helping parents help their children learn to read and write. Dolores Durkin studied children who entered school already knowing how to read. She followed the students for several years and found that the early readers maintained or extended their…

Collected in this document are seven papers presented at the Ohio Conference on Reading and Early Childhood: (1) "Kids," Jerome Kagen; (2) "Parents as Partners," Christine F. Branche; (3) "When the Young Child Finds Importance in Reading," Leland B. Jacobs; (4) "Four Questions on Early Childhood Education,"…

This document is the instructor's guide for teaching a learning module on literary analysis of children's stories. Its purpose is to provide suggestions for administering the module and to point out the flexibility with which instructor and student may approach the activities and assessments. The terminal object of the module requires that…

The document is a student manual, which presents a learning module on literary analysis of children's stories, and is concerned with the ability to distinguish and identify theme, plot, and characterization. A concomittant purpose is to familiarize teachers with a number of classic children's stories in which theme, plot, and characterization are…

Provides answers to five important questions in reading instruction; outlines stages in reading development, including "stage 0" (birth to age six)--the "prereading" stage; and points to evidence from research and practice supporting a developmental view in reading instruction. (MD)

Provides guidelines on selecting software for preschoolers and a buyer's guide with entries arranged by manufacturer. Each entry includes: name of the software package; current price; a list of special features (paddle/joystick required, graphic, and sound); and brief comments (such as subject and/or skill area and format). (JN)

Discusses advantages--and a few disadvantages--of using social sight words (such as "sale,""stop," and "exit") in introducing young children to reading; suggests learning activities involving such words. (GT)

Investigated the relationship between oral language and early reading development by administering to 39 children a broad range of oral language, background, and reading ability measures in kindergarten and first and second grade. Overall, semantic abilities, not phonological awareness, predicted second grade reading comprehension. Phonological…

There is now a considerable body of research into issues of gender representation in children's literature. This is no doubt partly due to the perceived importance of such representation for children's social and psychological development. In this paper I analyse gender representation in one stage of a reading scheme which is currently popular in…