This book offers an interdisciplinary look at the acquisition, loss, and remediation of normal reading processes.

Until about two decades ago, the study of writing systems and their relationship to literacy acquisition was sparse and generally modeled after studies of English language learners. This situation is now changing. As the worldwide demand for literacy continues to grow, researchers from different countries with different language backgrounds have begun examining the connection between their writing systems and literacy acquisition. This text, which derives from a NATO sponsored conference on orthography and literacy, brings together the research of 70 scholars from across the world--the largest assemblage of such experts to date. Their findings are grouped into three parts, as follows: Part I, Literacy Acquisition in Different Writing Systems, describes the relationship between orthography and literacy in twenty-five orthographic systems. This section serves as a handy reference source for understanding the orthographies of languages as diverse as Arabic, Chinese, English, Icelandic, Kannada, and Kishwahili. Part II, Literacy Acquisition From a Cross-Linguistic Perspective, makes direct comparisons of literacy acquisition in English and other orthographic systems. The overall conclusion that emerges from these eight chapters is that the depth of an orthographic system does influence literacy acquisition primarily by slowing down the acquisition of reading skills. Even so, studies show that dyslexic readers can be found across all orthographic systems whether shallow or deep, which shows that dyslexia also has internal cognitive and biological components. Part III, Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Perspectives, explores literacy acquisition from developmental and instructional perspectives and ends with a look into the future of literacy research. This Handbook is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in such diverse fields as cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, literacy education, English as a second language, and communication disorders.

Bringing together a wide range of research on reading disabilities, this comprehensive Handbook extends current discussion and thinking beyond a narrowly defined psychometric perspective. Emphasizing that learning to read proficiently is a long-term developmental process involving many interventions of various kinds, all keyed to individual developmental needs, it addresses traditional questions (What is the nature or causes of reading disabilities? How are reading disabilities assessed? How should reading disabilities be remediated? To what extent is remediation possible?) but from multiple or alternative perspectives. Taking incursions into the broader research literature represented by linguistic and anthropological paradigms, as well as psychological and educational research, the volume is on the front line in exploring the relation of reading disability to learning and language, to poverty and prejudice, and to instruction and schooling. The editors and authors are distinguished scholars with extensive research experience and publication records and numerous honors and awards from professional organizations representing the range of disciplines in the field of reading disabilities. Throughout, their contributions are contextualized within the framework of educators struggling to develop concrete instructional practices that meet the learning needs of the lowest achieving readers.

This is an edited book based on papers presented at a 2003 invitee-only conference under the sponsorship of the Merrill Advanced Studies Center of the University of Kansas. The participants were prominent scholars in the areas of language and reading, and have research programs funded by NIH and other sources. The purpose of the gathering was to discuss theoretical issues and research findings concerning the relationship between developmental language and reading disabilities, specifically looking at neurological, behavioral, and genetic factors. In addition, it discussed other factors contributing to reading difficulties in the middle elementary school years through adolescence and literacy outcomes for children with early language impairments, and how these problems relate to children with dyslexia. The Foreword is written by Reid Lyon, Branch Chief, Child Development and Behavior Branch, NICHD-National Institutes of Health. This book appeals to scholars in the areas of language disorders and reading disabilities, as well as to practicing speech-language pathologists, special educators, and reading specialists. It may also be used in graduate courses designed as seminars in either language disorders or reading disabilities in schools of communication disorders, as well as schools of education--especially special education departments.

The Psychology of Learning and Motivation publishes empirical and theoretical contributions in cognitive and experimental psychology, ranging from classical and instrumental conditioning to complex learning and problem solving. Volume 49 contains chapters on short-term memory, theory and measurement of working memory capacity limits, development of perceptual grouping in infancy, co-constructing conceptual domains through family conversations and activities, the concrete substrates of abstract rule use, ambiguity, accessibility, and a division of labor for communicative success, and lexical expertise and reading skill.

Much of the groundbreaking work in many fields is now occurring at the intersection of traditional academic disciplines. This development is well demonstrated in this important and unique volume, which offers a multidisciplinary view of current findings and cutting-edge issues involving the relationship between mind, brain, and language. Marie T. Banich and Molly Mack have edited a collection of 11 invited chapters from top researchers (and have contributed two of their own chapters) to create a volume organized around five major topics--language emergence, influence, and development; models of language and language processing; the neurological bases of language; language disruption and loss; and dual-language systems. Topics range from the evolution of language and child-language acquisition to brain imaging and the "bilingual brain." To maintain continuity throughout, care has been taken to ensure that the chapters have been written in a style accessible to scholars across many disciplines, from anthropology and psycholinguistics to cognitive science and neurobiology. Because of its depth and breadth, this book is appropriate both as a textbook in a variety of undergraduate and graduate-level courses and as a valuable resource for researchers and scholars interested in further understanding the background of and current developments in our understanding of the mind/brain/language relationship.