The purpose of this study was to compare the readability levels of the recreational reading books children selected to read with the reading levels of the children established by Powell's (1992) criteria for the Informal Reading Inventory. Using Fry's Readability Graph, a second purpose of this study was to compare the reading levels of the books the children chose and read with the reading levels of the books the children chose and did not read. Five hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance.Hypotheses I-IV were tested using a t-test for paired samples to determine if there was any particular reading level from which children tended to choose their recreational reading books.The analyses did not allow rejection of Hypotheses I and II. There were no significant relationships found between the reading levels independent and developmental, and the levels of recreational reading books children chose from their school library.The analyses did allow rejection of Hypotheses III and IV. The reading levels emergent and frustration proved to be statistically significantly different from the children's recreational book levels.Hypothesis V was tested using the Pearson correlation coefficient to determine the relationship between the reading levels of the recreational reading books the children chose and read and the reading levels of the books the children chose and did not read.The analysis failed to reject Hypothesis V. There was no significant relationship between the reading levels of the books the children chose and read and the reading levels of the books the children did not read. Although this hypothesis did not prove to be statistically significant, the following tendency was observed: the easier the readability of the book, the more likely it was to have been read.The findings of this study indicate fourth grade students chose books from their school library on all their reading levels. However, on the average students chose books between their independent and developmental reading levels. / Department of Elementary Education

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

This dissertation comprised three studies investigating early language and reading development of children with hearing loss who used listening and spoken language. The first study examined conversation techniques used by parents during dinnertimes at home with their preschool children with hearing loss (N = 37). Twenty-minute dinnertime segments were extracted from daylong, naturalistic Language ENvironment Analysis (LENA) recordings. Transcripts were coded for parents’ use of open- and closed-ended language elicitation, reformulation, imitation, directives, and explicit instruction in vocabulary and grammar. Participants’ receptive vocabulary and knowledge of basic concepts were also measured. Parents’ use of conversation techniques varied widely, with closed-ended elicitations and directives used most frequently during dinner. Open-ended language elicitation related significantly to children’s receptive vocabulary, and explicit vocabulary instruction was correlated with basic-concepts skills. Thematic analysis found common themes of concrete conversation topics and sibling speakers. In addition, parents who used many techniques often introduced abstract conversation topics; electronic media was present in all conversations with few techniques. The second study investigated the longitudinal complexity and quantity of the language input and output of 14 preschool children with hearing loss. Participants’ receptive vocabulary and understanding of basic concepts were measured and daylong recordings were collected at two time points one year apart. Twenty-minute dinnertime segments were extracted from each recording, and adults’ and children’s utterances were coded for syntactic and clausal complexity and lexical diversity. The quantity and complexity of parental language input remained consistent over one year. The initial clausal complexity of the children’s utterances related to their general receptive vocabulary, while the initial syntactic complexity of the children’s utterances related to their understanding of basic concepts one year later. The third study explored the reading skills achieved by 64 children with hearing loss in prekindergarten through third grade. Participants’ mean scores on eight reading subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Tests of Achievement were all within one standard deviation of the tests’ normative means. Relative strengths were found in basic reading skills, including phonological awareness and spelling. Relative weaknesses were found in oral reading and word- and sentence-reading fluency. When 53 participants’ skills were measured one year later, they had made significant gains in letter-word identification, sentence-reading fluency, and word-reading fluency, suggesting that they had made more than one year’s progress in one year’s time while enrolled in a specialized program.

No description available.

"The purpose of this paper is to develop a list of printed materials in the fields of fiction and biography for use with adolescents who are blind, deaf, or crippled. The books selected are presented in an annotated bibliography arranged alphabetically under two classifications, fiction and biography. An attempt was made to identify all available books for grades seven to twelve which meet the criteria established for this bibliography and have value in the education or treatment of physically exceptional adolescents"--Introduction. / "January, 1953." / At head of title: Florida State University. / Typescript. / Advisors: Sara K. Srygley, Louis Shores, Professors Co-Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-36).

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 S64 / Master of Science

M.A. (Afrikaans Nederlands) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

No description available.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Baylor University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-96).

No Child Left Behind (2001) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004) has put pressure on all teachers to develop proficient readers. In order to do just this, develop proficient readers, teachers must understand the effects that reading attitude has on reading achievement for all students. Research states that individuals with a positive attitude toward reading typically achieve at a higher level than those students with a poor attitude toward reading (Sainsbury & Schagen, 2004). However, there is a limited amount of research that has provided insight into how factors of socioeconomic status, gender, and disability may play a part in both attitudes and achievement in reading. This study examined whether socioeconomic status, gender, and/or disability played a role in the reading attitudes of students in grades one through six. The study also evaluated whether students’ attitude toward reading changed depending on their grade level. / Department of Special Education