In recent years, response to intervention (RTI) has been the focus of research, debate and educational implementations, especially regarding early reading instruction. RTI provides an educational framework characterised by different tiers or layers of instruction, providing increasingly more intense and individualised interventions for children in…

This article presents a critical review of the literature surrounding the potential impact of undiagnosed and untreated vision impairment on reading development in the early years of primary school. Despite pre-school screening programmes, it is still possible for children to enter school with undiagnosed, uncorrected vision impairments. This can…

The authors report on the development of a brief dyslexia screening measure based on revising the 65-item Hong Kong Behaviour Checklist of Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing. Teachers' ratings of 1063 primary students aged 6-14 years on the behaviour checklist provided data for its psychometric evaluation using traditional…

This study examined whether boys and girls in the early school years differed in reading and related skills, and their rates of progress. Gender ratios were calculated to ascertain whether there were more boys than girls who struggle with different facets of reading, and whether the variability of boys' scores resulted in more boys being…

We trained 36 12-year-old Chinese students with reading disorders in the analysis, synthesis and integration of orthographic constituents of semantic and phonetic "bujians" (radicals); and also their writing (spelling and composing) skills. These target students were compared with 37 age-controls in a pre-test and post-test design on a number of…

The activity level of the error monitoring system for processing isolated versus contextual words in Hebrew was studied in adults with dyslexia and skilled readers while committing reading errors. Behavioural measures and event-related potentials were measured during a lexical decision task using words in a list and sentences. Error-related…

The main goal of the present study was to examine the efficacy of a multi-component programme to improve reading fluency and text comprehension in Spanish children with reading disabilities (RD). Special needs teachers were trained in the application of the programme, which included repeated reading plus phonological awareness training and…

An analysis of large and influential published reviews of research pertaining to the reading acquisition of young struggling readers in the early years of schooling was undertaken. The reviews were selected on the basis that they either had been commissioned by federal governments or had been conducted by reputable research institutions and had…

Substantial research has detailed the reading deficits experienced by children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Although phonological awareness (PA) is vital in reading development, little is known about PA in the DMD population. This pilot study describes the PA abilities of a group of five young children with DMD, comparing the results…

This article explores how 11 pupils with severe visual impairment cope with reading activities in inclusive Norwegian schools. All pupils received instruction in braille and print, and used an audio-text format. Having multiple reading options provided possibilities for pupils to achieve reading skills, but also generated stress. Theories of…

Although many are critical of the uptake of unproven practices by teachers and families in their search for treatment for children with reading difficulties, there has been little examination of the specific conditions that persuade teachers and families to adopt such practices. This article traces the emergence and evolution of a particular meme,…

The prevalence of phonological and surface dyslexia subtypes among Swedish university students with dyslexia (n = 40) was examined using both the regression method, developed by Castles and Coltheart, and latent profile analysis. When an academic-level control group was used as a reference group in a regression, eight students with phonological…

Reading Recovery is an intensive literacy programme designed for young students who have been identified as being at-risk of reading failure after 1 year of schooling. The intervention was developed and trialled in New Zealand over 20 years ago and is now implemented in a number of education systems. The focus of this article is on recent research…

Identifying low-progress readers easily and quickly is an essential prerequisite for effective literacy intervention in schools. In this study, teacher judgment of reading performance is compared with a curriculum-based measurement procedure. This study involved 33 teachers and their Year 3 to Year 5 classes. Twelve students were randomly selected…

This article discusses major conceptual and methodological issues that have arisen in intervention research, with a focus on interventions for learning problems, particularly reading problems. Research examples are presented to illustrate how conceptual and methodological factors in intervention research can be taken into consideration in the…