Advances in Reading Intervention

Research to Practice to Research
The Extraordinary Brain Series, XIV

About the Editors

Carol McDonald Connor, Ph.D.

Senior Learning Scientist, Learning Sciences Institute
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

Peggy McCardle, Ph.D., M.P.H.

Owner, Peggy McCardle Consulting, LLC
Seminole, Florida

Contents

• About the Editors ... ix
• About the Contributors ... xi
• The Dyslexia Foundation and the Extraordinary Brain Series ... xxiii
• Acknowledgments ... xxvii

Part I Introduction

Chapter 1

Research to Practice to Research: The Importance of Reciprocity to Building Better Interventions
Carol McDonald Connor and Peggy McCardle

Chapter 2

An Overview of Reading Intervention Research: Perspectives on Past Findings, Present Questions, and Future Needs
Maureen W. Lovett

Part II Basic Considerations for Reading Intervention:

Behavior, Neurobiology, and Genetics

Chapter 3

The Growth of Self-Regulation in the Transition to School
Frederick J. Morrison

Chapter 4

Innovative Data Summary Measures Provide Novel Insights on Reading Performance
Christopher W. Bartlett, Andrew Yates, Judy F. Flax, and Linda M. Brzustowicz

Chapter 5

The Role of Rapid Automatized Naming in Reading Disruption: An Application of the Cusp Catastrophe
Georgios Sideridis, George K. Georgiou, Panagiotis G. Simos, Angeliki Mouzaki, and Dimitrios Stamovlasis

Chapter 6

Eye-Movement Research in Reading: Enhancing Focus on the Development of Reading and Reading Disabilities
Brett Miller

Chapter 7

Neurobiological Bases of Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension: Distinctions, Overlaps, and Implications for Instruction and Intervention
Laurie E. Cutting, Stephen Kent Bailey, Laura A. Barquero, and Katherine Aboud

Chapter 8

Integrating Neurobiological Findings in Search of a Neurochemical "Signature" of Dyslexia
Stephanie N. Del Tufo and Kenneth R. Pugh

Chapter 9

The Genetic Classroom: How Behavioral Genetics Can Inform Education
Sara A. Hart

Integrative Summary 1: The Future of Reading Research: New Concepts and Tools and the Need for Detailed Genetic and Neurobiological Contexts

Nadine Gaab

Part III Reading and Writing Interventions: Research to Inform Practice

Chapter 10

What Practitioners Think and Want to Know
Joan A. Mele-McCarthy

Chapter 11

Literacy in the Early Grades: Research to Practice to Research
Carol McDonald Connor

Chapter 12

Addressing Dialect Variation in Early Reading Instruction for African American Children
Nicole Patton Terry

Chapter 13

Reading Development Among English Learners
Nonie K. Lesaux

Chapter 14

Students with Reading Difficulties Who Are English Learners
Melodee A. Walker, Philip Capin, and Sharon Vaughn

Chapter 15

The Letra Program: A Web-Based Tutorial Model for Preparing Teachers to Improve Reading in Early Grades
Juan E. Jiménez

Chapter 16

Struggling with Writing: The Challenges for Children with Dyslexia and Language Learning Difficulty When Learning to Write
Vincent Connelly and Julie E. Dockrell

Chapter 17

Fostering the Capabilities that Build Writing Achievement
Rui A. Alves and Teresa Limpo

Chapter 18

Effectiveness of a Beginning Reading Intervention: Compared with What? Examining the Counterfactual in Experimental Research
Michael D. Coyne

Integrative Summary 2: Translating Reading Research into Effective Interventions for All Children Who Struggle with Reading

Julie A. Washington

Part IV Finale: Looking to the Future

Chapter 19

Innovation and Technology that Can Inform Reading Interventions
David J. Jodoin

Chapter 20

Reading Intervention in Perspective
Donald L. Compton and Laura M. Steacy

Chapter 21

Moving Forward in Reading Intervention Research and Practice
Peggy McCardle and Carol McDonald Connor

An Overview of Reading Intervention Research

Perspectives on Past Findings, Present Questions, and Future Needs

Maureen W. Lovett

Three decades of work in the relatively young science of reading intervention research have been productive, revealing many positive findings about how to intervene with children and adolescents who struggle to learn to read due to dyslexia, reading disabilities, or other causes. There appears to be compelling evidence that effective intervention for readers struggling with acquiring basic reading skills should include:

1. Explicit, systematic, phonologically based instruction with ample opportunities for practice and cumulative review.
2. Systematic instruction on all levels of written language structure, from subsyllabic and sublexical dimensions to different text and discourse structures.
3. Instruction and scaffolded practice to promote the application and transfer of newly acquired skills to new materials.
4. Modeling, teaching, and mentoring of specific reading, self-regulation, and self-monitoring strategies.
5. An integration of decoding and spelling to stress the reciprocity of these activities.
6. Daily attention to vocabulary growth and comprehension development using a variety of appealing and complex texts.

These findings highlight the need for focused, evidence-based strategies in reading intervention.