A mastery learning program called MTARSH (Multisensory Teaching Approach for Reading, Spelling, and Handwriting) was used with 282 remedial students and 144 nonremedial students in grades 1-6. Subsequent California Achievement Test scores in reading and spelling improved over baseline scores for students in both remedial and nonremedial classes.…

A study investigated relationships among 59 elementary teachers' reading-related content knowledge, their philosophical orientation toward reading instruction, their classroom practice, and their students' learning. Relationships emerged between content knowledge and instruction and between kindergarten teachers' phonological knowledge and their…

Twenty-four first-graders who were taught reading skills using the "Language Basics: Elementary" program, which incorporates the Orton-Gillingham-based Alphabetic Phonics Method, made statistically significant gains in phonological awareness, decoding, and reading comprehension. Thirty-two controls taught with the Houghton-Mifflin Basal…

The progress of 138 elementary students with specific learning disabilities was followed as they were instructed using the Alphabetic Phonics curriculum. After 3 years, the curriculum produced significant progress in reading comprehension for average and above average students, though below average students did not advance substantially in…

Elementary students (n=105) with problems in word recognition were given computer-assisted instruction involving either only reading words in context, or reading words in context and completing exercises involving individual words (to increase their phonological awareness). The latter group showed significant gains on tests of phoneme awareness…

This paper traces the theoretical foundations of the Spalding Method of teaching reading, from the original concepts of Samuel T. Orton through validation in current cognitive science and learning theory. Descriptions of implementation with regular and special education children are provided. The method provides direct, multisensory instruction in…

This analysis of 17,602 frequently used words found that 616 orthographic rimes occurred in rime families as building blocks of almost all the 43,041 word syllables. Of these, 436 were both regular and consistent in pronunciation, and only 86 had less than a 90 percent level of consistency. Results suggest the usefulness of rime units for teaching…

The Reading Assistance Tutorial (R.A.T.) Pack is a systematic, multidisciplinary remedial reading program incorporating listening, speaking, seeing, writing, thinking, and comprehension skills. The sequenced activities demand a high percentage of on-task behavior and train phonological processing strategies and functional language use. Research…

This article outlines the Schoolwide Reading Improvement Model (SRIM), a model characterized by the strategic integration of research-based practices in assessment, instructional design, and beginning reading instruction. A description of each major stage of the SRIM is provided, along with an example of its application in an Oregon school…

A study investigated predictors of individual differences in responsiveness to word reading instruction in 55 typical first-graders and 41 identified as at-risk. A combination of rapid naming speed, letter sound knowledge, and phonemic awareness skill predicted word and nonword reading growth in the at-risk group. Growth modeling increased reading…

A study found children (ages 7-12) with difficulties in phonemic awareness and word identification who received Fast ForWord (FFW) training (n=11) and Orton Gillingham (OG) training (n=9) made similar gains in phonemic awareness. Unlike children who received FFW, children who received OG training made significant gains in word attack. (Contains…

A study that examined perceptions and knowledge of 252 preservice educators and 286 inservice educators about early reading instruction found inservice educators had more positive attitudes about explicit code instruction and preservice educators were more positive about implicit code instruction. However, both groups demonstrated limited…

Two groups of first graders (n=63) participated in a 10-day intervention study in which they were instructed in the spelling of five final letter patterns in monosyllabic words. Children receiving phoneme instruction improved accuracy of final pattern spelling as well as speed of word reading over children receiving rime instruction. (Contains…

This study developed a teacher knowledge survey that measured teacher knowledge of reading-related concepts. Use with 41 second- and third-grade teachers and then 103 third- and fourth-grade teachers found significant associations among teachers' knowledge, classroom reading achievement levels, and teachers' observed teaching competence. The…

Discussion of the teaching of writing, spelling, and reading using code-based literacy methods, such as Orton-Gillingham examines the cognitive challenge of the transition from spoken to graphic word and then reviews new research findings, such as the letter as model for sound variation, ease of spelling the low vowel, and the creation of word…