Some children become capable readers and writers before ever attending school and without exposure to formal instruction. This phenomenon--sometimes referred to as natural literacy development--is not, in the strictest sense, natural; as the adult presents much of the literacy environment to the child in a socialized, mediated form, teaching is…

A study demonstrated that young children who have difficulty with phonics can be taught to read through other methods, that phonics is only one of the many useful strategies that a child can employ, and that many contextual strategies are easier to learn and more reliable than phonics. A case study was conducted during an intervention with a young…

Noting that children in literate societies all learn the sound-symbol relationships of their languages but that orthographies, sound-symbol relationships, and societal attitudes toward literacy differ, the essays in this book explore both the universal and the culturally constrained aspects of the process of learning to read. Following an…

The paper describes the development of the "Test of Thought and Language" (Total) which is intended to allow first grade teachers to determine if students are ready for phonics instruction or if, for some students, the curriculum should first develop language concepts, structures and thinking processes. Background information for the…

A nationwide survey was conducted to determine what skills and knowledge kindergarten teachers consider important for preschoolers to have upon entering kindergarten. A sample of 400 randomly selected school districts were invited to contribute kindergarten readiness guidelines and report cards; 78 schools and school districts from the United…

This report of a hearing presents testimony on H.R. 2535, the School Excellence and Reform Act, also cited as the "Even Start Act," a bill aiming to combine into a single educational program adult basic education for parents and school readiness training for children at risk. The specific intent of the legislation was to establish a…

The Sault Ste. Marie (Michigan) Area Public Schools' Compensatory Education Division undertook a 2-year process evaluation of the effectiveness of an early intervention strategy for low reading readiness kindergarten children enrolled in Title I programs. The first year of the evaluation sought to determine whether children exposed to this…

Encompassing reading and writing skills exercises, this book is a GED (General Educational Development) preparatory workbook designed to provide the student with all the skills needed to pass the reading and writing sections of the GED exam. Designed as a supplementary text for use in American Indian adult education programs, the workbook is…

Successive studies conducted in Sweden have shown that linguistic awareness is an important prerequisite of learning to read. In one survey that measured the various aspects of the linguistic awareness of 6-year-old children, a very close connection was found between preschool linguistic awareness and reading proficiency in school. Another study…

The rationale, development, and implementation of a reading program designed to teach disadvantaged children the skills prerequisite to learning to read are discussed in this paper. Of particular importance are skills in the recognition and manipulation of basic speech sounds, phonemes. The first of the program's three parts takes two and one-half…

This is a report of a New York City school district educational project funded under Title l of the Elementary and Secondary Act of 1965 which provided a supplementary reading and mathematics readiness program for early childhood CRMD pupils ranging in age from five to seven. The major goal of the program was to increase the levels of student…

In learning to read a nonnative language, the learner's ability to achieve meaning is hampered if adequate preparation or readiness for reading is neglected. A review of the literature pertaining to second language learning and reading in a second language has identified five principles that appear to be significant in providing effective reading…

Instead of merely correlating the amount of time a child is read to with gross measures of language development or reading achievement, researchers need to examine closely, through naturalistic studies, the underlying construction and organization of story book reading events between parent and child. The notion of scaffolding, in which the adult…

As the second in a four volume final report of a Right to Read preservice, competency-based modular reading specialist project, this volume presents the module outlines for components two through six of the classroom program. Component two (readiness and beginning reading) trains the students in language development, dialect differences, language…

This file contains a total of 285 cards describing activities for nursery-school children. It was designed to accompany "The Child-Care Teacher Aide" (ED 147 492), a teacher's guide for vocational training of teacher aides. The file is divided into four main divisions--fall, winter, spring, and summer. Apportioned among the different seasons are…