Concludes that preschool children know that print conveys information, yet frequently use environmental cues rather than letter knowledge when they appear to read. (FL)

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

The articles collected in this special issue of "Reading"offer a response to and elaboration of the report of the Bullock Committee on reading. An editorial introduction describes the focus and implications of the report and outlines the committee's main recommendations. Included in the discussion are the following articles:…

This study presents an account of position saliency in terms of children's ability to utilize graphic information, and in particular the serial encoding of information from letters in a graphic pattern. By varying the number and position of the letters distinguishing graphic patterns (positive condition) in a short-term recognition memory (STRM)…

Discusses factors that foster the development of young voluntary readers. Reviews studies that describe home and school characteristics that encourage voluntary reading and stresses the importance of providing young students with a rich literary environment in the classroom. (FL)

Concludes that sound awareness scores significantly predicated performance of kindergarten children on a sight-word learning task and a decoding-like task. Subjects' knowledge of terminology was unrelated to success on either task. (FL)

A study investigated the kinds of questions children ask as they encounter written language. Data were gathered over a 7-month period for two boys, one approximately 4, the other approximately 2 years of age. Two types of observation sessions were used: formal story reading times that were audiorecorded, and informal situations where the…

A study examined whether environmental logos could be used as tools for beginning reading instruction. Logos are bold, colorfully adorned symbols featuring printed words in design formats that appear on products and advertisng signs. Subjects were 20 preschool children, half of whom were three and one-half years old, and the rest four and one-half…

Reading can be defined as a meaningful interaction with a print setting. Interactive models of reading assume that lower level and higher level processing occurs simultaneously, interacting with each other. The familiarity of the book, the context in which a sign occurs, and the illustrations of a book are all examples of print setting cues that…

Argues that while many publishers may simplify the sentence structure in the basal reader to facilitate the process of learning to read, this practice may result in texts with stylistic features and text formats that are unnatural and uncharacteristic of written English or the language development level of the children. (FL)

Addressing the question of why some children manage to continue successfully through the later stages of literacy acquisition while others are unable to meet the challenges presented by fourth and fifth grade reading tasks, an 18-month, in-depth study was conducted of the home environment factors influencing the reading comprehension of second,…

Early reading should be studied from three perspectives: the function of print, the form of print, and the conventions of print. In so doing, it may be possible to avoid some of the hazards that have plagued the field, such as unsubstantiated assumptions about beginning reading and how it should be taught, erroneous beliefs that maturation plays…

To determine developmental patterns in emergent reading behaviors of young children, a longitudinal study was conducted of two-, three-, and four-year-old children's language when asked to "read" a favorite storybook. Thirty-two middle and low income children from a daycare center took part in four studies spaced over a year; four children were…

The concept of scaffolding can be used as a framework to argue that a "rich interpretation" in child language is needed in the area of early literacy learning. Child language is the reading-like text language of "prereading" kindergarten children. Two threads (internal and external) of the scaffolding process have been identified. The external…

Focusing on the not-yet-conventional ways in which young children write and read--their nature, contexts, and significance for continuing literacy development, this book presents the perspective that children's early reading and writing behaviors are not pre- anything, but are integral parts of an incipient language process. Following an…