Serial rapid naming skills in children with reading disabilities

This study compared the performance of children with reading disability (RD) and normal reading achievement (NRA) on tasks of serial rapid naming, verbal fluency, letter-based word retrieval, and articulatory speed. The groups, composed of children at two discrete age levels, one younger and one older, were matched for age, gender, and neighborhood school. Analyses of the on-line measurement of the children’s serial rapid naming indicated that the children with RD had significantly larger reaction times and production durations than their NRA peers despite similar levels of accuracy. They also performed significantly worse on the categorical verbal fluency task, the letter-based word retrieval task, and the test of articulatory speed. The findings suggest that both access and post-access processes, such as oral-motor inefficiency that extends the duration of word production, may be implicated in the slower serial rapid naming that has typified many samples of children with RD. This work was supported in part by Basil O’Connor Research Grant 5-340 from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, a Scholarly and Creative Activity Award and sabbatical leave from California State University, Long Beach and grant #DCO 1904-01 from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the NIH to the first author.     

Multiple Dimensions of Instructional Effectiveness in Reading: A Review of Classroom Observation Studies and Implications for Special Education Classrooms

The purpose of this study was to review and analyze effective classroom reading practices for early graders, using information gathered from the existing content-general and content-specific observation protocols measuring teachers’ classroom reading practices. Dimensions and constructs from 28 observation studies were synthesized to identify classroom instructional practices that have positive impacts on student achievement. Findings revealed that (a) instructional support, emotional support, and classroom management have positive impacts on student achievement, (b) the degree to which instructional practices are effective depends on students’ particular learning needs, and (c) students’ entering skills and primary language are associated with instructional effectiveness in reading. Challenges and implications for future research on effective instructional strategies for special education and the development of an observational protocol for special education teacher effectiveness are discussed.     

Moving Towards a Fair Start: equal gender opportunities and the careers service

Although there is now a considerable literature on gender inequality in education and employment, there is virtually no research on the Careers Service which provides a bridge between the two. Based on a national survey of all Careers Services conducted in 1987, this paper explores the significance afforded to gender discrimination and the nature and content of equal opportunities policies designed to counter it. It draws attention to the differences in meaning which the term ‘equal opportunities’ can have and to the changing context in which equal opportunities policies now operate.     

Environmental print and word reading

The nature of the earliest stage of reading was examined by comparing two views about the importance of environmental print in children’s learning experiences. One theory holds that environmental print leads to the acquisition of reading through developing rudimentary representations of specific words and logos, while the second theory concerns assembled phonology and asserts that reading begins with knowing letters and their sounds. Supporters of this theory hold that knowledge of environmental print and logos is reading the environment and may not directly facilitate the acquisition of word reading. Two studies were conducted with non-reading preschool children in which environmental print knowledge was assessed and related to word recognition training. In the first session of each study children were presented with accurate representations of environmental print and logos such as ‘McDonalds’ and ‘Stop’ to find the ones they were able to identify and the ones they failed to identify. In the second session learning trials were conducted with those words from the logos that the children identified and also those that they failed to identify and with matching control words. Both studies found that the words from the known logos were more readily learned than the matching control words, but only in Study 1 were the known logo words learned more readily than the ones the children did not know. The results were discussed in terms of Gibson’s (1969) theory of perceptual learning, and supported the view that environment print and logo knowledge facilitated word reading.     

Integrating storytelling and quantitative career assessment

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - Combining quantitative career assessment with narrative career counselling is a career counselling challenge. The Integrative...     

活下去,为死者,也为生者

Anna Ling Pierce wrapped her arms around her two young sons, J. T. and Mike, as they watched a crowdof brightly clad runners warm up for the 1998 BostonMarathon. The sharp April wind stung Anna' s cheeksas she glanced upward, a hint of a smile on her face. Somehow