The extent to which individual differences in pictograph recall performance are related to reading readiness and other aspects of language and cognitive development is examined in this paper. In each of three studies kindergarten children were taught names and toy enactions for approximately 30 pictographs. The kindergarteners were then…

A battery of four reading readiness assessment tasks was administered to 267 first grade students to determine if the tasks predicted reading achievement as well as the Metropolitan Readiness Test (MRT). The four tasks, which were the best predictors in a previous study of seven readiness tasks, were the aural word boundaries task, the…

This review of the literature on kindergarten assessment and its relationship to primary reading achievement is divided into the the following sections: (1) studies which support early assessment; (2) studies which suggest the use of a battery over a single readiness test; (3) studies which utilize assessment data for treatment purposes; (4)…

The paper describes the beginnings of a total developmental language learning system for mainstreamed visually impaired children in Israel. The readiness program is divided into five sections: auditory perception and discrimination, tactile perception and discrimination and fine motor coordination, gross motor coordination, body image awareness,…

In contrast to earlier reports this study indicated that motor fitness training programs do not seem to affect reading readiness. (AN)

This report reviews and evaluates the tradition of assessing early literacy with formal tests. It begins with a historical account of the readiness movement, focusing on the development of formal measures of early literacy and tracing the development of the movement into the 1980s. Next, the paper analyzes in depth tests that are currently…

While word discrimination studies based on the subjects' conscious manipulation of words--for example, counting the number of words in a line--indicate that beginning readers are unskilled in identifying word boundaries, tests using such indirect methods of assessment as word recognition reveal a strong correlation between the ability to…

This study examines the relationships between the measures of visual and auditory discrimination contained in five reading readiness batteries: the Clymer-Barrett Prereading Battery (Form A), the Gates-MacGinitie Readiness Skills Test, the Harrison-Stroud Reading Readiness Profile, the Metropolitan Reading Readiness Tests (Form A), and the…

THE RESULTS OF 17 STUDIES ON READING READINESS ARE SUMMARIZED AND INTERPRETED. ALL BUT ONE OF THE STUDIES WERE COMPLETED SINCE 1957. READING READINESS IS DEFINED, AND THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN TRADITIONAL AND CURRENT THEORY ARE DISCUSSED. STUDIES OF FORMAL READING READINESS INSTRUCTION IN KINDERGARTEN ARE DESCRIBED. CONCLUSIONS ABOUT KINDS OF…

This paper describes a Piagetian-based evaluation measure and results obtained from the use of this measure with 1260 pre-kindergarten inner-city children. The children were enrolled in a program designed to develop their readiness skills. Family income, limited educational opportunities of adult members of the family, and dependency on public…

A 3-year study concerning teaching a phonics-oriented kindergarten readiness program of letter recognition and beginning consonant sounds was discussed. Sixty-eight children attending kindergarten in a suburban middle and upper-middle class community composed the sample. The experimental group consisted of 33 children; the control group consisted…

The development of a research model to aid in the understanding of the hierarchical structure of reading readiness is described. Data were obtained by testing 218 first graders from three elementary schools with the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, the Gates Reading Readiness Test, the Metropolitan Readiness Test, the Olson Reading…

The Pre-Reading Skills Battery is a group-administered diagnostic battery measuring skills considered to be prerequisite to beginning reading instruction. Three major areas of skills are included: language, visual perception, and auditory perception. Within each of these three areas several skills are tested through two or three sub-tests. In some…

This paper reviews the studies involving the more commonly measured reading readiness factors, discusses some unique studies, and projects what some needs of future research should be. The research areas discussed include reading readiness tests as predictors of success in beginning reading, auditory discrimination factors and their relation to…

Reports on a study that examined the predictive power of five specific prereading skills tests for first-grade reading achievement and assessed their value as indicators of reading readiness. (FL)