A study of kindergarten children used three language-eliciting situations to obtain stories. The stories were compared for fluency, vocabulary, descriptive nature, and story structure. Results indicated that stories elicited without the use of a prop were more fluent and reflected a more sophisticated story structure than those elicited by a…

One hundred kindergarten children completed a phoneme segmentation test, an invented spelling test, and two tests of visual-motor ability. Scores on both tests of phoneme awareness predicted between 30% and 40% of variance in reading ability a year later, while visual-motor scores bore a less substantial relationship to future reading ability.…

In an exploratory project to enrich the reading experiences of 84 rural low-income first-graders, 15 female community members were trained to work with children in nontraditional and traditional activities that addressed reading-related skills. Student achievement test scores improved from exceptionally low reading achievement in the fall to…

This report explains why reading story books to young children (an activity assumed to help in the acquisition of literacy, although there is no unambiguous evidence in support of this assumption) is likely to be important and reviews the evidence about the role it might play in literacy development. The first section of the report examines…

Using extensive data gathered from a follow-up study on an early reading program which tested the reading competence of high school seniors who had received formal beginning reading instruction in kindergarten, an ancillary study investigated the effects of early formal reading instruction on bilingual students. Three of the dependent variables…

A study explored the relationship between print awareness and subsequent reading achievement in children. Specifically it measured changes in the development of print awareness across age and grade levels and across time, and compared the levels of lower-ability, educationally disadvantaged children in second and third grades to that of their…

A study examined when young children begin processing phonetic cues for reading. Subjects were kindergartners selected and classified by their ability to read preprimer and primer level words on a 40-word list--prereaders (0-1 words known), novices (1-11 words known), and veterans (11-36 words known). Subjects were given reading practice with…

The Direct Instructional System for Teaching Arithmetic and Reading (DISTAR), a highly structured, systematic program, was developed to provide instruction to disadvantaged children. This paper cites the opinions of proponents and opponents of the program and notes the results of previous studies of the effectiveness of DISTAR. The paper then…

This study assessed oral language readiness for reading of second-grade students in French and English monolingual and bilingual programs in Canada. The 220 students enrolled in French monolingual, English monolingual, immersion bilingual (90/10) and balanced bilingual (50/50) programs were tested with the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts and the Oral…

The purpose of this study was to compare the characteristics of kindergarten readers with those of children who entered kindergarten but could not read. One hundred thirty children were identified as readers and 130 children were randomly selected from each of the readiness and non-readiness groups in the Madison, Wisconsin public schools. A…

The problem of this psychometric investigation was developed as four major areas for study: (1) a comprehensive processing model was designed and tested; (2) prediction of academic achievement, including group-administered versus individually-administered instruments, was investigated; (3) memory processes relative to schools and achievement…

The Child Parent Education Centers, funded through Title I of the Elementary Secondary Education Act of 1965, are administered by the Chicago Board of Education in areas characterized by a high density of low-income families. Approximately 2100 children, ages three through nine, are enrolled in the 11 centers which offer up to six years of…

A study of the effects of microcomputer use in classrooms and homes on the growth of school-readiness skills of kindergartners used pre- and posttested experimental and control groups to assess reading readiness, mathematics readiness, Piagetian operations, and keyboard knowledge. Teacher implementation strategies and techniques used by nonreaders…

Investigates the reliability and validity of tests that have been used to operationalize the concept of phonemic awareness. Indicates that a combination of two tests, one related to each factor, has greater predictive validity for the beginning steps in reading acquisition than does one test alone. (JK)

An action research project described a program for improving reading readiness and language arts skills through phonemic awareness. The targeted population consisted of kindergarten students in a heterogeneous mix of upper middle class, middle class, working class, and low income families located in central Illinois. Data revealed that students…