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…

A review of interactive models of reading combined with the assumption of compensatory processes indicates that compared to poor readers, good readers appear to have superior strategies for comprehending and remembering large units of text and are superior at context-free word recognition. (MKM)

Reports on studies testing a method that uses a television monitor to present simultaneously the visual and auditory versions of sentences, as a way of facilitating the teaching of reading. (GT)

Addresses the affective quality of the parent-child relationship during shared book reading. Finds a significant difference in the affective quality of the parent-child relationship related to both the child's attitude toward reading and the child's reading fluency. Notes dyads who were affectionate during shared reading had children who were less…

This study of 67 intermediate grade students with reading difficulties found that students in a peer-mediated sustained reading condition performed better than peer-mediated repeated reading students and control students receiving typical reading instruction, on fluency but not on comprehension. No effect for the level of text difficulty was…

Measures of reading fluency were investigated as predictors of reading comprehension for 77 third graders and 65 fifth graders. Several of the eight measures investigated were found to be good predictors of comprehension with the potential for use by teachers. Results show that reading fluency is a multidimensional reading construct. (SLD)

Presents a review of the literature on oral reading fluency. Offers a comprehensive picture of factors associated with fluency development by clarifying and refining the variant ways researchers have interpreted the fluency construct. Recommends research-based instructional principles that foster fluency development; examines approaches used to…

Argues that reading rate should not be ignored, but rather seen as evidence of excessively slow processing of text, and thus as a diagnostic indicator. Describes how excessively slow, disfluent reading leads to less overall reading, to reading frustration, and is associated with poor comprehension. Describes authentic and engaging instructional…

This study tested the effects of a fluency-based home reading program called Fast Start. Thirty beginning first-grade students, representing a wide range of early reading abilities, were randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions for a period of 11 weeks. Parents and students in the experimental group received Fast Start training,…

Effective approaches to fluency instruction should facilitate automatic and accurate word recognition as well as the ability to read with expression. The study reported in this article focused on instructional approaches that can be used with small groups of learners within a broader literacy curriculum, one that is suitable for flexible grouping.…

The authors conducted a synthetic review of the research literature on the reading development and reading instruction of deaf students and compared their findings to the review of research literature conducted by the National Reading Panel (NRP) on four topic areas: (a) alphabetics (phonemic awareness instruction and phonics instruction); (b)…

The purpose of this study was to train a paraprofessional to implement the Direct Instruction (DI) "Spelling Mastery" (Dixon, Engelmann, & Bauer, 1990a, 1990b) program and to investigate the effectiveness of the instruction delivered by the paraprofessional for students with learning disabilities. We investigated (a) the extent to…

Recent advances in neuroimaging and genetics technologies have enhanced our understanding of neurodevelopmental disorders in adults. The authors in this volume not only discuss such advances as they apply to adults with learning disorders, but also address their translation into clinical practice. One cluster of chapters addresses developmental…

When mobile assessment tools was first introduced to teachers at Kyffin Elementary School in Jefferson Country, Colorado, teachers were not comfortable with the technology. According to Blanche Kapushion, principal at Kyffin, teachers were not used to using technology in class, and it did not look like that was going to change. Nonetheless,…

CD-ROM storybooks can support the development of the five essential elements of reading instruction identified by The National Reading Panel: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Specific features inherent in these texts, audio pronunciation of text, embedded vocabulary definitions and animated graphics can be used…