In the field of special education, educators and researchers are continually searching for effective methods that might improve the academic or behavioral performance of students that are at risk or are identified with special needs. The need for effective methods is particularly salient with regard to those students identified with or at risk for…

A study determined classroom teachers' opinions of causal factors of reading failure and reported their attitudes on the major issues in reading instruction as suggested in current research. A representative sample of 100 elementary classroom teachers from School District #299 in the Chicago, Illinois area were sent the Ross Reading Survey. A…

Research-based reading instruction could reduce recidivism and increase employment opportunity for incarcerated juvenile offenders. Reviews of the research literature provide ample evidence of the link between academic failure, delinquency, and reading failure. A re-examination of the research literature and interviews with reading instructors…

This book contains 29 essays which grew out of presentations delivered at a conference on the right to literacy whose participants were invited to consider differing definitions and historical understandings of literacy and the political, pedagogical, and theoretical implications of the many approaches to literacy education that have been taken…

Questions pertaining to beginning reading, success, and failure are addressed. The issues of concern are: (1) When reading begins? (2) What preschool activities seem to help certain children succeed as readers? (3) What characteristics and conditions are associated with reading failure in first grade? (4) What early experiences might help children…

This paper addresses cognitive issues raised by the success of an early reading intervention program, Reading Recovery (originated in New Zealand and also used in Australia and the United States,) in which the great majority of students move from low reading achievement to average achievement for their age group within 12-15 weeks. The first…

Reading failure can be eliminated by the year 2000 if reading teachers believe it can be done, can develop the new procedures needed to make their dreams come true, and are willing to make fundamental changes in how they teach reading. Phonic utility research clearly indicates that phonics instruction is neither dependable nor useful. The current…

The theory that reading is a perceptual process was tested in a study involving 216 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. The significance of the relationship between performance on a standard reading test and on an apparatus designed to test visual/motor perception was assessed. An analysis of the data revealed that there was no relationship between…

This bulletin is published annually in the interest of children with specific language disabilities, learning disabilities or dyslexia. Articles in this issue deal with "Some Problems of the Ex-Dyslexic,""Hemispheric Specialization and Stages in the Learning-to-Read Process,""The International Scene,""Diagnosis…

Based upon the assumption that the teacher is the single most important factor in the development of reading skills, this volume provides information concerning different aspects of why citizens need to read and how teachers can aid in this process. Included in "why to read" are insights into the multifaceted aspects of communication, the…

Noting the need for action to alleviate the illitaracy which handicaps half of the world's population and 11 percent of America's, it was emphasized (1) that the problem is particularly intense in urban schools where failure rates and nonreaders run from two-thirds to 50 times higher than in other schools; (2) that the percentage of retarded…

Collected together in this volume are the background papers for the National Advisory Committee on Dyslexia and Related Reading Disorders. Papers include "The Nature of the Reading Process"; "Bases of Classification of Reading Disorders"; "Sex Differences in Reading Disability"; "Dyslexia: Neurological and Genetic Etiology"; "Dyslexia and Its…

In this paper the author examines the more commonly accepted causes of failure in reading and argues that all of them are related to and explained by two major problems: the lack of proficiency in the spoken language and traditional orthography, the medium in which reading is most commonly taught. Each of the factors generally accepted as…

Descriptions of individual diagnosis and remediation of reading problems experienced by students at all levels are included in this annotated bibliography. Included are books, texts having case study sections, and journal reports which together comprise useful sources of case studies of reading disabilities. An opening section lists nine "first…

Descriptions of individual diagnosis and remediation of reading problems experienced by students at all levels are included in this annotated bibliography. Included are books, texts having case study sections, and journal reports which together comprise useful sources of case studies of reading disabilities. An opening section lists nine "first…