Persistent concerns about income and social inequality have raised questions about how to address opportunity gaps in access to literacy learning for low-income young children. Recognizing the need to strengthen learning opportunities, this study examines how specially designed hybrid spaces within the 'everyday' place of a neighborhood laundromat…

The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that helping preschoolers learn words through categorization may enhance their ability to retain words and their conceptual properties, acting as a bootstrap for self-learning. We examined this hypothesis by investigating the effects of the World of Words instructional program, a supplemental…

This study examines children's uses of reading resources in neighborhood public libraries that have been transformed to "level the playing field." Through foundation funding (US$20 million), the public library system of Philadelphia converted neighborhood branch libraries into a technologized modern urban library system, hoping to…

Examines television's impact on reading and school achievement in terms of the displacement hypothesis (watching television displaces developmental reading activities). Indicates small differences in reading scores for children watching two to four hours a day, but beyond four hours effects are negative and increasingly deleterious. (SR)

Investigates young children's literacy activity within play settings designed to reflect authentic literacy contexts in children's real-world environment. Finds that, in the course of play activities, children demonstrated declarative knowledge about literacy (e.g. names of literacy objects), procedural knowledge, and strategic knowledge. Suggests…

Proposes a list of studies that have influenced instructional practice. Considers how literacy instruction has changed. Discusses the role of literacy research in instruction. (PA)

Investigates the functions of reading across diverse cultural settings by examining children's purposes for reading in 13 countries and then identifying functions of reading common across age levels and nationalities. Finds three common factors identified by 10 and 13 year olds: utility, enjoyment, and escape. (KEH)

Examines the effects of literacy-enriched play settings on preschoolers' literacy behaviors in spontaneous free play. Finds differences in frequency, duration, and complexity of literacy demonstrations in play. Finds that children incorporated literacy objects in more diverse and functional ways than children playing in a normal physical…

Responds to criticisms raised in another article in this issue concerning a study of incidental word learning among second-language learners viewing captioned television. Suggests that the criticisms fail to "see the forest for the trees." Responds to specific methodological criticisms. (RS)

Examines the effects on six children's literacy play and intellectual development of coaching their teenage mothers to use selected cues in playful literacy explorations. Finds increases in the use of interfactional cues following intervention, with scores declining to different degrees during transfer and maintenance phases. Finds that children's…

Analyzes whether comprehensible input via captioned television influences acquisition of science vocabulary and concepts using 129 bilingual seventh and eighth graders. Finds that comprehensible input is a key ingredient in language acquisition and reading development. (MG)

Examines the impact of an intervention targeting economically disadvantaged children that flooded over 330 child-care centers with high-quality children's books and provided 10 hours of training to child-care staff. Examines the project's impact and gives support for the physical proximity of books and the psychological support to child-care staff…

Presents five educators' ideas of what the influences of media on literacy will be in the next millennium. Considers the global influence of the 21st century library. Discusses the technique of composition across the curriculum. Considers past and present patterns of literacy in relation to conceptions, materials, and methods of literacy. (SC)

Finds striking differences between neighborhoods of differing income in access to print (books, signs, labels, logos, public places conducive to reading, and access to books in local preschools, school libraries, and public library branches), with middle-income children having a large variety of resources to choose from, while low-income children…