Examines syntactic, semantic and grapho-phonic miscues made by early readers of varying ability. Finds that (1) passage complexity affects use of syntactic and semantic cues; (2) high and above average students' miscue quality deteriorates as text complexity increases; and (3) higher word recognition scores relate to effective use of grapho-phonic…

Examination of the relationship between educational attainment and long-lasting, bilateral otitis media with effusion (OME) in 270 Dutch children (ages 2 to 4) found that, at age 7, early bilateral OME affected spelling ability but not reading ability. Effects of treatment with ventilation tubes were not found. (DB)

Investigates the relationship between cognitive abilities at age four and reading at age seven. Shows that reading ability was positively correlated with knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondence, visual memory, auditory sequential memory, and Draw-a-Man scores (intelligence). Suggests that cognitive deficits predate reading problems. (PA)

Print material at an advanced reading level was revised for low literate individuals and given to a treatment group randomly chosen from 295 participants. Revisions had an insignificant effect on knowledge. It was recommended that materials for low-literate audiences be developed from scratch and not revised from existing material. (SK)

Reading-disabled and nondisabled 8-10 year olds and 14-16 year olds indicated instances of recurrence in lists of words and pseudowords that contained repeats, rhymes, near rhymes, and semantically related pairs. Poor readers relied on semantic connections and good readers relied on phonological connections. (ME)

Investigates the effects of text absent and text present conditions during summary writing. Suggests that text absent summarization may be beneficial but only for subjects who are competent summary writers or able readers. (SR)

This article presents evidence that initial and advanced reading abilities are predominantly mediated by the right and left cerebral hemispheres, respectively. Premature reliance on left hemisphere reading strategies or later failure to shift from earlier right hemisphere strategies are hypothesized as resulting in two different types of dyslexic…

Finds that differences in parent and teacher ratings of low ability readers were more pronounced than the differences for high ability readers. Shows that parents of low readers viewed their children as more adaptable, approachable, and persistent than their teachers, whereas both parents and teachers viewed low readers as distractible. (SR)

Compared to controls, adults (n=102) who reported a history of difficulties in learning to read were disabled in phonological coding, but less disabled in reading comprehension. Adults with poor phonological coding skills had basic deficits in phonological representations of spoken words, even when semantic word knowledge, phonemic awareness,…

Investigated relationships among complex memory span, simple memory span, and phonological awareness tasks and their predictive importance for reading accuracy, reading comprehension, and arithmetic ability. Eleven tests were administered in three sessions to seven-year olds. Results suggested that phonological awareness and complex span tasks…

Examined the phonological analysis and verbal working memory components of the sound categorization task and their relationships to reading skill differences. Children were tested on sound categorization by having them identify odd words in sequences. Sound categorization performance was sensitive to individual differences in speech perception…

Discusses the detrimental effects that low reading groups can have on children. Presents four alternatives to ability grouping that can help all children gain control of their learning and experience success in literacy. (MG)

Studies 54 children with hearing loss using the hypothesis that children with hearing loss who learn standard language through using their hearing will learn to read in the same predictable ways as children with normal hearing. Finds that hearing losses do not make the normal acquisition of reading impossible. (MG)

This study of 30 gifted and 30 average secondary level readers assessed their reading processing strategies using think-aloud protocols. Gifted readers used such strategies as rereading, inferring, evaluating, predicting, and relating to content area, whereas average readers exhibited word pronouncing concern and inaccurate summarizing.…

Analysis of family and medical histories of 5 children (ages 11 to 16) with autism and hyperlexia and 5 sex-matched and IQ-matched children (ages 9 to 15) with autism but no hyperlexia suggested that children with autism and hyperlexia represent part of the continuum of autism rather than a specific syndrome. (Author/DB)