Reading Development and Teaching

This textbook will prove invaluable to teacher educators, teachers, educational psychologists, and any professional who is involved with teaching children to read. It provides a detailed examination of the processes that are involved in achieving fluent word reading skills and ability to comprehend written texts. Understanding these processes and their development empowers teachers to select appropriate, evidence-based teaching strategies and thus teach children more effectively. The book is in four parts:

• Part 1 provides the reader with a Tutorial Review covering essential knowledge about language, and presenting the two dimensions of the Simple View of Reading.
• Part 2 concentrates on the word reading dimension, with chapters on processes in skilled word reading, the development of these processes, and practical advice on research validated teaching methods to develop children's word reading skills.
• Part 3 turns to the language comprehension dimension, with chapters on the comprehension of oral and written language, and on teaching reading comprehension.
• Part 4 introduces the reader to assessment practices and methods of identifying children with difficulties in either or both dimensions of the Simple View, and considers children with word reading difficulties and children with specific comprehension difficulties, describing effective evidence-based interventions for each type of difficulty.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Tutorial Review

• Essential knowledge about language
• The Simple View of Reading: a broad conceptual framework

Part 2: Reading Words on the Page

• Visual word recognition in skilled readers: how do we, as skilled readers, read written words?
• Development of visual word recognition processes: how do children learn to read written words?
• Teaching word reading skills

Part 3: Understanding written language (reading and comprehension)

• Development of comprehension of oral and written language
• Teaching to develop reading comprehension

Part 4: Assessment and intervention

• Assessing word reading skills and reading comprehension
• Teaching to overcome word reading difficulties (developmental dyslexia)
• Treating reading comprehension difficulties

"Overall, this seems to me to be by far the best book available on its topic. It is comprehensive, almost always uses evidence judiciously and objectively, treats all the relevant key topics, gives excellent value for money and should be required reading on all courses of initial and in-service training for primary teachers and those trying to help children with reading diff?culties."
- Greg Brooks, Literacy

"The high level of detail expressed in a clear and accessible way make this an important resource. I wish I'd had it when I did my Ed Psych training! Our teacher trainees will find this very useful."
- Dr Kerry Vincent, School of Education, Nottingham Trent University

"This publication is clearly presented, separated into four sections; part one provides knowledge of language, part two for reading and teaching methods, part three language comprehension and lastly showing methods of identifying children who have specific difficulties with reading and comprehension. This book aids further understanding of students studying on the Foundation Degree to advance their learning of particular strategies to support intervention programmes in the classroom."
- Miss Tracey Canham, Health Care And Early Years, Swindon College