Presents evidence that reading can be learned by the same informal and unstructured methods as speech, and calls for a concentration on slow readers. (CRH)

Discusses the concept of emergent literacy, summarizing several theories and studies on children's early experiences with reading and writing. Examines the implications of this research for beginning reading and writing instruction. (MM)

Parents are not recommended to teach their preschoolers to read. Although some children learn to read before school, forcing a child to read can have many damaging effects. Instead, parents are encouraged to talk to their child, to develop important reading readiness skills in their child, and to build their child's background of experiences. (TM)

This study examined the effects of the Waterford Early Reading Program on reading achievement gains across the first-grade year. The results of this longitudinal analysis demonstrated meaningfully greater gains on reading achievement for those with access to the Integrated learning system (ILS) (n[superscript 2] =.10). Furthermore, the positive…

This study explored developmental differences in children's segmentation skills of VC and CV syllables (e.g., /af/ and /fa/) in relation to their early reading abilities. To this end, we followed a subgroup of Dutch speaking prereaders who participated in Geudens and Sandra (2003, Experiment 1), and replicated the segmentation task in first grade,…

This paper explores reading for pleasure, its importance, and its impact on literacy attainment and other outcomes and reviews much of the research on the importance of reading for pleasure. A debate has been rife in the UK over the past few years as to how best to teach children to read, which culminated in an "Independent Review of the…

It is argued that attention to effective evidence-based early reading interventions are a co-requisite to genuinely inclusive education, with implications not only for reading acquisition, but also for a range of other social and academic domains. This paper briefly describes some of the recent developments in reading research that have the…

This phonics outline is designed as a guide for parents, as a manual for teachers, and as a handbook for those who wish to improve their reading pronunciation skills. The purposes of the handbook are: (1) to show parents what a person needs to know to become a good reader; (2) to provide a convenient source of words that follow rules of phonics;…

Early reading instruction is important for all children, but especially for the disadvantaged, because the decision not to expose them to reading at an early age may result in an unrecoverable loss of intellectual potential. Reading readiness as an approach may exile children from literacy permanently because it is an abstract and alien process…

A study examined two contexts in teaching a language experience approach (LEA) reading lesson to kindergarten children. The five children--Black, Hispanic, and White students of varying ability levels--first developed a group story of their own using the Van Allen language experience approach. The teacher recorded the story, and the students wrote…

A total of 107 Arkansas kindergarten teachers responded to a questionnaire designed to identify their attitudes and practices. The questionnaire elicited information concerning the teachers' experiential background, the methods and materials they used to teach reading skills, the prereading and reading skills taught, and their opinions about…

The outcome of a first course in reading is proportionate to the quality of the course objectives and rationale. Since a first course in reading should achieve all its objectives in observable performance, the behaviorists' identification of goals with outcomes should guide the statement of objectives. Gaps between outcomes and objectives may be…

Preschool children's knowledge of printed words and letters was studied longitudinally, in order to achieve a definition and an ordering of reading readiness activities. Middle-class children were tested to determine what they knew about print, they were given word learning and word recognition tasks, and their parents returned questionnaires…

This book has been written to help parents, or any other nonprofessional reading teachers, teach preschoolers about reading. Part one discusses the psychological, philosophical, and historical aspects of home teaching. Part two presents the practical aspects of home teaching, specifically the things a parent can do to prepare a child to read and a…