Theses (Ed.S.)--Marshall University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains 31 p. Bibliography: p. 26-27.

The problem of this thesis was to explore the relationship between first grade reading failure and certain environmental and developmental factors, using the case study method. The subjects were sixteen boys and six girls from a Vancouver school in a poor neighborhood. They ranged in age from 7 years 1 month to 8 years 2 months, and in IQ from 73 to 113 according to the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test (Form A). All had been taught by veteran primary teachers using the auditory-visual, basal reader method. Achievement was assessed on the basis of report card grades, a Pupil Rating Scale designed for this project, and the Durrell Analysis of Reading Difficulty. The etiological factors investigated were intelligence, visual perception, style of learning, self-concept and home environment. Eight students repeating grade I were matched with eight who had been regularly promoted to grade II. It was hypothesized that differences in reading achievement between the matched pairs would be accounted for by significant differences in one or more of the factors studied. Evaluative techniques included: Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Raven Coloured Matrices, Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, Mills' Learning Methods Test, and a 45-90 minute parent interview for each child. Twenty-two case studies were assembled, in which the beginning stages were noted of a variety of reading disabilities - maturational lag, linguistic handicap, cultural deprivation, inadequate motivation, emotional disturbance, faulty reading habits. The major findings were: 1) The Pintner-Cunningham Primary Test appear to assess inaccurately the functioning intelligence of 10/22 children in this sample. Six of these pupils were successful readers with defects of visual perception revealed by the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception, sub-tests II, III and IV. 2) The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test had a high correlation with reading success, and did not appear to discriminate against the ten children who came from bilingual or Canadian Indian homes. 3) Anomalies of biological endowment characterized 9/l4 unsuccessful readers - organic defect, slow development, premature birth, hypo- or hyper-activity - although only one was mentally retarded. It) The aspects of home environment basic to reading success in grade I appeared to be parental literacy, standards of behavior adjusted to the child's capacity, reasonable methods of discipline, and a warm relationship between the child and at least one parent. 5) Lack of flexibility in methods of teaching reading were seen as contributing to the high failure rate. For 12/14 pupils, the only solution offered for a wide variety of beginning reading problems was a second year in grade I, with no adjustment of curriculum. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

The author will deal with reading readiness in the following ways: Information found in the pedagogical literature, ways of appraising readiness for reading, and suggested activities for a reading readiness program. / Typescript. / "August, 1957." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Marian W. Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 26-27).

Harris suggests the following as important to readiness for reading: 'general intelligence, visual and auditory perception, physical health, background of experience, comprehension and use of oral English, emotional and social adjustment, and interest in reading'...As a first grade teacher, the writer became especially interested in two of these factors. As a result of such teaching experience, two of these interrelated readiness factors have seemed of special significance: the influence of emotional attitudes on reading readiness and the relation of kindergarten experience to the child's readiness for reading. It seemed wise to learn more about meeting the emotional needs of children whose school adjustment might be affected by lack of kindergarten experience. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to investigate these two phases of reading readiness: the emotional factors and the influence of kindergarten as a part of the child's background of experience. The relation of these factors to procedures in the first grade classroom will be emphasized. / Typescript. / "August, 1955." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Sarah Lou Hammond, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-75).

"The writer chose reading readiness for special study and research primarily because she is a trained, experienced, secondary-school teacher now teaching the first grade. She feels that special attention should be given to reading readiness for beginning first graders to try to offset part of the 25 per cent who 'fail' each year due to inability 'to read.' Since a good start on the road to reading is so vitally important, the author feels that she, as a first-grade teacher, should study the causes of reading failures and search for the best methods of prevention that reliable research has found up to this time. The desire to explore the field of reading readiness was further strengthened from the writer's study of child growth and development, especially the study of applying the principles of child growth and development to the classroom and to educational activities"--Introduction. / "August, 1954." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Marian W. Black, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-40).

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Reading readiness is a subject that concerns reading teachers and educators. Inadequate readiness training may cause some students to become late readers, who can be identified as students who score below their age and grade level on a standardized reading test. It is important to define reading readiness and examine the component skills and factors in order to help late readers. This examination was conducted by a study of reading-readiness literature. The reading-readiness skills include auditory discrimination, visual and visual-motor discrimination, development of language, concept formation, and reasoning skills. Readiness factors include fixed factors, social, and emotional factors. Fixed factors cannot be changed or improved by instruction, such as age, sex, I.Q., and physical health. Social and emotional factors can often be improved by manipulating the classroom environment and providing nurturing experiences.

The purpose of this study has been to discover print awareness of kindergarten children in Taiwan and the evidence that they are constructing knowledge about written Chinese. The study utilized Print Awareness Tasks including twenty environmental print items chosen from the Taiwanese society. Sixteen kindergartners age from three to six were the informants. These children were asked to read and respond to environmental print items with a different degree of decontextualization in each of the two task sessions. The results of the study showed that kindergarten children in Taiwan are highly aware of print in their environment. These young children demonstrated high semantic intent when they read environmental print. They used various information sources available to them, which include contextual clues in the print setting and their personal experience and background knowledge. They also showed that they used their developing concepts about the Chinese writing system as linguistic strategies to help them read the print items. There were differences between the responses to the two task sessions in terms of semantic and pragmatic characteristics and use of information. The contextual clues appeared to play a significant role in reading of environmental print. There were also differences between age groups. Three and six year olds differed from other age groups in terms of the semantic and pragmatic characteristic of their responses and their use of information. The children demonstrated that they were developing important concepts about the Chinese writing system. They were hypothesizing the representational relationships in language between: (a) written representation and the object it represents; (b) written representation and oral utterance--character-syllable correspondence; and (c) segmentation in written representation--language units. Most of the children had developed the concept of character as a written segment and word as a semantic segment. Very few of them had concept of the radical. They appeared read in a holistic way. The older children tended to develop concepts which were more specific and were closer to the conventions; however, no fixed linear developmental progress by age is suggested by the data.