Early reading intervention is crucial to ensure all students develop strong foundational literacy skills for academic and lifelong success. This Spotlight will help readers investigate the benefits of tutoring on early reading skills; identify how to build students' reading stamina; gain insights into knowledge-building curricula; review the…

Already well documented for hearing children, schooling's effects on early literacy skills for young students who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) were examined for the first time in the present study. Piecewise growth curve modeling was used to describe 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old students' growth in phonological awareness, letter-word…

This study examined the effects of an intervention with a multicomponent reading game on the development of reading skills in 60 Dutch primary school children with special educational needs. The game contains evidence-based reading exercises and is based on principles of applied gaming. Using a multiple baseline approach, we tested children's…

This study examines the relations among the classroom literacy environment, children's interest and engagement in literacy activities, and children's early reading skills in a sample of 167 children aged 4 and 5 years enrolled in 31 Head Start classrooms. Researchers rated the classroom literacy environment. Teachers reported on children's…

As the ability to read proficiently is essential for success both in and out of the school setting, literacy has become an area of particular focus in today's classrooms. While recent assessments indicate that students are making progress in the area of reading (e.g., National Assessment of Educational Progress [NAEP], 2011), there continues to be…

Reading is a necessary skill in our modern society and is increasingly critical for success in our highly technological society. Yet many children from low-SES backgrounds struggle to develop reading proficiency (Lee, Grigg, & Donahue, 2007) and continuing concerns about this pervasive relationship has led to an increased focus on creating…

Teaching students with intellectual disabilities (ID) to read is extremely challenging. Fortunately, the outlook for students with ID is improving because we now know much more about how to teach reading to students who struggle, including those with ID. The central theme of this article is that reading instruction for students with ID must be a…

Substantial research supports the need for early intervention efforts for students at risk for failure. Despite the empirically documented importance of early, explicit reading intervention for students who enter school without critical prereading skills, many kindergarten programs delay intensive reading instruction until later in the year.…

Building crucial bridges between theory, research, and practice, this volume brings together leading authorities on the literacy development of young children. The "Handbook" examines the full range of factors that shape learning in and out of the classroom, from basic developmental processes to family and sociocultural contexts,…

Children's vocabulary development represents a critical foundation for their reading skills. This article describes a curriculum-based vocabulary progress monitoring tool that was used to track the development of Head Start children--and particularly those at highest risk for later reading difficulty--as they learned new words during the school…

Early intervention to mitigate special education and reading risk is especially critical for low socioeconomic and minority learners. This study examined the lasting effects of an early reading intervention package of phonemic awareness on the reading skills of 38 second-grade students one and two years after intervention ended. The participants…

This study examined the effects of a supplemental early reading intervention on the beginning literacy skills of 12 kindergarten/first-grade urban English language learners (ELLs). The Early Reading Intervention (ERI; Simmons & Kame'enui, 2003) was the instructional intervention used with all students. A multiple-baseline design across…

"Ready, Set, Leap!"[R] is a preschool curriculum that focuses on early reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-sound correspondence, using multisensory technology that incorporates touch, sight, and sound. Teachers may adopt either a theme-based or a literature-based teaching approach, and for each…

"Ready, Set, Leap!"[R] is a comprehensive preschool curriculum that focuses on early reading skills such as phonemic awareness, letter knowledge, and letter-sound correspondence using multi-sensory technology that incorporates touch, sight, and sound. The "Ready, Set, Leap!"[R] curriculum is available in English and Spanish.…

Special education legislation has placed an increased emphasis on early intervention programs for children at risk for early literacy delays and behavioral disorders. Given this trend, it is important to understand the characteristics of students identified and served in at-risk programs. This study presents the findings from a cluster analysis on…