This 15-minute videotape describes the NewPhonics program, a developmentally appropriate program specifically for kindergarten and pre-first grade that fosters the skills necessary for early literacy learning. The video addresses the two necessary skills that children must possess to experience success in the early stages of literacy learning:…

The years when a young child's language skills are "exploding" are the years between three and five. What can make a dramatic difference in a child's life is if parents take a few minutes a day to read to him or her. Reading to a child helps him or her become a successful reader. The child develops a sense of phonics and learns that stories have a…

A study examined the effects of commercially produced phonics software upon the phonemic awareness of students studying reading with the Herman Method for teaching reading. Participants were 13 middle school students in a self-contained or comprehensive developmental special education classroom. The control group of six students did not use the…

In the form of a statement to United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, this paper presents an overview of reading and literacy initiatives. It begins with a brief discussion of the seriousness of reading failure in the United States and then discusses longitudinal studies conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and…

The use of television as an aid for teaching the initial teaching alphabet is discussed with programing recommendations. (RK)

Uses a dialogue format to examine the nature of the reading process, including the aspects of decoding, encoding, interpretation, and application. Includes British references. (VJ)

Concludes that fourth-grade children were able to apply more phonics terms than they could define and that high ability readers could define more terms than could low level readers. (FL)

The study investigated the phenomenon of invented spelling in the original composition of 10 first grade and 10 second grade native Spanish speaking children enrolled in a bilingual program. From an examination of over 200 pieces of writing, categories of spelling have been suggested and examples of each are given. (Author/NQA)

Discusses a study in which learning disabled or educationally handicapped middle school students received a daily treatment of 20 minutes of phonics instruction and demonstrated gains on both the Wide Range Achievement Test and the Gray Oral Reading Test. (AEA)

Two programs designed to analyze reading selections and post a grade level based on number of syllables and phonetic make-up are presented. The materials are written in BASIC for a PET computer. The program, designed to analyze the phonics, is thoroughly documented. (MP)

First-graders taught reading by phonics or language experience approach were compared on their ability to orally decode lists of words identified as either real or nonsense words. The two groups did not differ in overall correct responses, nor were their strategies influenced by the "real/nonsense" directions. (SJL)

Results refute current claims that words are read aloud by retrieving a single pronunciation from memory and that pseudowords are pronounced by using abstract spelling-to-sound rules. Instead, it appears that words and pseudowords are pronounced using similar kinds of orthographic and phonological knowledge. (Author/CP)