The authors have selected over 30 articles which provide an overview of theory, research, and practice in early reading. Resources are divided into the following categories: comprehensive studies, theoretical issues, pedagogical issues, empirical issues, literature reviews, and bibliographies. (SW)

Discusses research and instances of children learning to read and or write in the home without formal instruction, tracing the development of such natural literacy. Argues that literacy is primarily a social process, involving both teaching and learning. (HTH)

Reports on naturalistic research studies revealing that children begin to learn to read and write long before they go to school. (JL)

Defining early reading as reading that occurs prior to the time that a child begins formal schooling, this annotated bibliography contains references on the topic from a variety of sources that include journals, books, conference proceedings, ERIC documents, dissertations, and theses and that represent the research in a number of countries. The…

Outlines the most important 20th century developments in reading instruction for young children, analyzing why an approach was tried, and presenting results of these instructional efforts. It is concluded that the current perspective that seems to meet the needs of most children is that of emergent literacy. (SLD)