This study examined the skills predicting early reading development when children were taught by a synthetic phonics approach. Eighty five children taught to read by systematic synthetic phonics were assessed on reading and cognitive assessments prior to reading instruction (average age 4 years, 7 months), 6 months later (5 years, 1 month), and 73…

Forty-four children, identified by their kindergarten teachers as independent readers upon public school entrance, were interviewed to assess their perceptions of how and when they learned to read. In addition to interviews, the children's literacy behaviors were observed in their normal classroom settings and in individual shared book experiences…

This study investigates the impact of using an adaptive computer-assisted instruction (CAI) program in early childhood education. The Waterford Early Reading Program (ERP) is a CAI program that was assigned to kindergarten and first grade students in a school district in Texas for the 2015-2016 school year. The Texas Primary Reading Inventory…

Research concerning preschool teachers' constructions of early reading has potential to influence teachers' curricular decisions and classroom practice. Six preschool teachers in North Texas were interviewed in regard to what they think about early reading and how they develop these understandings or constructions. The systematic, inductive…

This article presents an overview of literacy teaching and learning, based on the author's extensive research and, in particular, the recently revised and extended "Learning to be Literate: Insights from Research for Policy and Practice" (Routledge, 2016). It is set against a background in England in which government policy dictates…

This appendix provides additional details on the underlying data, statistical models, and results presented in the main report. We first describe how we created each control and outcome variable and its source (e.g., parent report), followed by an overview of the logistic regression models employed, and then provide the full set of results from…

Research Findings: Researchers and policymakers emphasize that early childhood is a critical developmental stage with the potential to impact academic and social-emotional outcomes (G. Conti & J. J. Heckman, 2012; J. J. Heckman, 2012; R. Murnane, I. Sawhill, & C. Snow, 2012). Although there is substantial evidence that children's early…

We investigated the effect of a morphological awareness intervention on the morphological awareness and reading skills of a 6-year-old student who was struggling with early reading skills and had a history of speech and language impairment. We conducted a 7-week intervention designed to increase the student's awareness of affixes and the meaning…

This article argues that if we paid attention to the local situation of a reader the way we attend to the life story of an author, we might gain a very different understanding of children's literacy. It explores the literate approaches of a single child exploring a single theme--the settler culture as represented in a variety of materials…

From the time of birth, children begin learning about themselves and the world around them. Parental aspirations for their children's P-16 educational attainment does not exist in a social vacuum within the United States. In aggregate terms, parents' P-16 aspirations reflect the families' social class standing in their respective communities.…

A 10-question Likert-type scale survey was presented to parents of children enrolled in the Imagination Library's (IL) program. IL sends age-appropriate books once a month to children from birth to age 5 so that their parent can read to them. After registering for the program and receiving books, 93 parents answered the survey questions…

Many children with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) have considerable difficulty learning basic reading skills. Increasing evidence suggests individuals with IDD may benefit from instruction incorporating components of reading found to be effective for typically developing children. However, little research into reading…

As governments, donors and implementation organisations re-focus Education for All Goals in terms of quality of education, increasing concerns have been raised over low literacy levels in developing countries. This paper provides key learning from the application of an early reading intervention applied in post-conflict Liberia, which included a…

Previous work on the long-term effects of early reading focuses on whether children can read early (i.e. capability) not on whether this is beneficial (i.e. optimality). The Luke Effect is introduced to predict long-term reading development as a function of when children learn to read. A review of correlational, intervention, and comparative…

Literacy gives children an opportunity to benefit from others' knowledge and experience that far exceeds what they can achieve when reliant on learning orally via personal encounters. Little is known about young children's understanding and use of print as a source of knowledge. Three experiments investigated children's use and understanding of…