Volume
16: Issue 4
November, 2001
Emergent and Early Literacy: Current Status and Research Directions—Introduction
Peggy McCardle: National Institute of Child
Health and Human Development Judith A. Cooper: National Institute on Deafness
and Other Communication Disorders Gail R. Houle: U.S. Department of Education
Naomi Karp: U.S. Department of Education Diane Paul-Brown: American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association
Bringing It All Together: The Multiple Origins, Skills, and Environmental
Supports of Early Literacy
David K. Dickinson: Center for Children & Families, EDC Allyssa McCabe:
University of Massachusetts Lowell
Critical Elements of Classroom and Small-Group Instruction Promote Reading
Success in All Children
Barbara R. Foorman: University of Texas-Houston Health Science Center
Joseph Torgesen: Florida State University
Abstract:
The components of effective reading instruction are the same whether the
focus is prevention or intervention: phonemic awareness and phonemic decoding
skills, fluency in word recognition and text processing, construction
of meaning, vocabulary, spelling, and writing. Findings from evidence-based
research show dramatic reductions in the incidence of reading failure
when explicit instruction in these components is provided by the classroom
teacher. To address the needs of children most at risk of reading failure,
the same instructional components are relevant but they need to be made
more explicit and comprehensive, more intensive, and more supportive in
small-group or one-on-one formats. The argument is made that by coordinating
research evidence from effective classroom reading instruction with effective
small-group and one-on-one reading instruction we can meet the literacy
needs of all children.
Early
Literacy Skills in African-American Children: Research Considerations
Julie A. Washington: University of Michigan
Abstract:
The poor reading achievement of African-American children in urban schools
is well established. African-American children from low-income homes may
be at particular risk for reading difficulties, although middle-income
children often fare poorly as well. Intervention efforts have focused
on children in kindergarten through fifth grade. This article suggests
that prevention efforts must begin prior to kindergarten entry. Several
key variables that may influence young children's performance, including
poverty, general oral language skills, dialectal variations, home literacy
practices, standardized testing bias, and teacher expectations, are explored.
Future directions for research addressing emergent literacy in African-American
children are discussed throughout.
How Do Profoundly Deaf Children Learn to Read
Susan Goldin-Meadow: University of Chicago Rachel I. Mayberry: McGill
University
Abstract:
Reading requires two related, but separable, capabilities: (1) familiarity
with a language, and (2) understanding the mapping between that language
and the printed word (Chamberlain & Mayberry, 2000; Hoover
& Gough, 1990). Children who are profoundly deaf are disadvantaged
on both counts. Not surprisingly, then, reading is difficult for profoundly
deaf children. But some deaf children do manage to read fluently. How?
Are they simply the smartest of the crop, or do they have some strategy,
or circumstance, that facilitates linking the written code with language?
A priori one might guess that knowing American Sign Language (ASL) would
interfere with learning to read English simply because ASL does not map
in any systematic way onto English. However, recent research has suggested
that individuals with good signing skills are not worse, and may even
be better, readers than individuals with poor signing skills (Chamberlain
& Mayberry, 2000). Thus, knowing a language (even if it is not the
language captured in print) appears to facilitate learning to read. Nonetheless,
skill in signing does not guarantee skill in reading—reading must
be taught. The next frontier for reading research in deaf education is
to understand how deaf readers map their knowledge of sign language onto
print, and how instruction can best be used to turn signers into readers.
Predicting, Explaining, and Preventing Children's Reading Difficulties
Peggy McCardle: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Hollis S. Scarborough: Haskins Laboratories Hugh W. Catts: University
of Kansas
Abstract:
Several decades of research have made it clear that by the time children
enter school they already vary widely in their reading-related knowledge
and skills. How well do these differences predict differences in reading
acquisition? What can they tell us about the causes of reading
disabilities? How might these research findings be used to reduce
the number of children who have difficulty learning to read?
Answers to such questions are fundamental for designing early interventions
for children at risk. In this paper, we summarize what has been learned
so far, and discuss what directions need to be taken in future research
so as to provide fuller answers.
Neuroimaging Studies of Reading Development and Reading Disability
Kenneth R. Pugh: Yale University School of Medicine; Haskins
Laboratories W. Einar Mencl: Yale University School of Medicine;
Haskins Laboratories Annette R. Jenner: Yale University School of Medicine;
Haskins Laboratories Jun Ren Lee: Yale University School of Medicine;
Haskins Laboratories Leonard Katz: Haskins Laboratories; University
of Connecticut Stephen J. Frost: Haskins Laboratories; University
of Connecticut Sally E. Shaywitz: Yale University School of Medicine Bennett
A. Shaywitz: Yale University School of Medicine
Abstract:
Converging evidence from a number of neuroimaging studies, including our
own, suggest that fluent word identification in reading is related to
the functional integrity of two left hemisphere posterior systems: a temporo-parietal
system and a ventral occipito-temporal system. These posterior systems
are functionally disrupted in developmental dyslexia. Reading disabled,
relative to nonimpaired, readers demonstrate heightened reliance on both
inferior frontal and right hemisphere posterior regions, presumably in
compensation for the LH posterior difficulties. We propose a neurobiological
account suggesting that for normally developing readers the temporo-parietal
system predominates at first, and is associated with aspects of processing
critical in learning to integrate orthography with phonological and lexical-semantic
features of printed words. The occipito-temporal system, by contrast,
constitutes a fast, late-developing, word-identification system that underlies
fluent word recognition in skilled readers
Next Steps in Research and Practice
Peggy McCardle: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Judith A. Cooper: National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication
Disorders Gail R. Houle: U.S. Department of Education Naomi Karp: U.S.
Department of Education Diane Paul-Brown: American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association