Examines the hypothesis that poor readers will have much greater difficulty in recalling abstract words than will normal readers but will closely approximate normal readers in recalling concrete words. The hypothesis was confirmed at the second-grade level but not at the sixth-grade level. (Author/CB)

Reading-related skills were tested in adults with and without reading disabilities (RD) or with profound hearing impairment (PHI). Both RD and PHI groups demonstrated low levels of phonological awareness but the RD group also exhibited deficits in verbal short-term memory, morphological awareness, speeded written naming, reading comprehension, and…

Conflicting findings on television's impact on reading achievement suggest a need for more sophisticated measurements and methodologies in media research. D. L. Moldenhauer and W. H. Miller's survey of 78 seventh grade students showed no relationship between television viewing and reading skills. These findings were similar to those of J. T.…

Compares the ability of children at three different levels to use analogy in reading both real and nonsense words. Shows young children can successfully use analogy to decode new words. (HOD)

Reports two studies in which 5- and 6-year-old children were given word order awareness tasks, followed 3 or 5 months later by vocabulary, reading achievement, and reading readiness (for the 5-year-olds) tests. (Author/NH)

Teacher self-reports of the frequency of currently advocated early literacy practices in Grades 1 through 3 were entered into regression models in an effort to predict 3rd-grade outcomes. Explicit skill instruction was a significant predictor of higher passing rates on a state examination and lower rates of special education referral but was also…

Designed to assess a reader's achievement in various reading skills for the purpose of instructional placement, the instrument contains three forms (A, B, C), each of which contains 50 items. The items test comprehension of idioms and direct statements, with emphasis on drawing inferences. Administration time for each test is 25 minutes. (This…

Comparison of scores of 35 third- and fourth-grade students with learning disabilities on 3 major achievement tests found high positive correlations among the reading subtests. Agreement across all 3 tests for learning disability eligibility in the basic reading skills area was found in 20 of 35 cases and 9 of 35 cases in reading comprehension.…

Compared comprehension of kindergarten-age precocious readers (who read at the third-grade level) with second- and third-grade-age children. Results on measures of letter, scrambled word, and text reading times indicated that, for precocious readers, efficiency in lower-order tasks is not a prerequisite for rapid text reading and good…

The "Failure-free" Reading Program was evaluated with 39 students (ages 8 to 12) with severe reading problems. The program involves previewing, listening, content presentation, reading, and reviewing. Improved performance in letter-word identification, word attack, comprehension, and dictation was evident after the intensive intervention.…

Analyzes national data and determines that an intercohort decline in vocabulary at all or most educational levels in recent years was closely related to an intercohort decline in newspaper reading. Includes six figures and four tables illustrating these conclusions. (CFR)

A study investigated suggested interrelationships of linguistic awareness, cognitive ability, and reading achievement. The extent to which differences in reading achievement were related to differences in the other areas was also explored. The Linguistic Awareness in Reading Test (LARR), the Coloured Progressive Matrices (CPM), and the Stanford…

This study examined the early profiles of 270 kindergarten students screened for learning difficulties in kindergarten with SEARCH (an early identification measure) of which 32 had inadequate reading skills at the end of second grade. The SEARCH instrument tended to underidentify children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and overidentify…

Race and socioeconomic class differences in children's reading performance are influenced by social and motivational factors. For example, children from poverty backgrounds are more likely to attribute success to conditions outside personal control, and thus do not experience as much pride in achievement as middle class students who have learned…

Beginning with the 1985-86 school year, the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS) tests have been based on the objectives provided in this publication for teachers and test development specialists. Reading skills objectives for grade 7 include the ability to: (1) identify the main idea; (2) use context to understand the meaning of…