Phonemic awareness--the understanding that words are made up of sounds--is essential to a child's early reading success. With this book, children gain this awareness through activities that are easy to teach and engaging. Children play with sounds through songs, rhymes, poetry, picture games, and other exercises. The activities cover the five basic levels of phonemic awareness: * the ability to hear rhymes and alliteration; * to do oddity tasks; * to orally blend word and split syllables; * to orally segment words; * to do phonemic manipulation tasks. Blends critical reading skills with joyful word play. For use with Grades K-2.

In this volumume prominent scholars from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds are brought together to review the empirical studies on the ability to reflect upon and manipulate the phonemic segments of speech, and to present their insights on the relationship of phonological aware- ness to the reading process.

This volume is designed to prevent and correct most word-level reading difficulties. It trains phonemic awareness and promotes sight vocabulary acquisition, and therefore reading fluency.

Practical, effective, evidence-based reading interventions that change students' lives Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties is a practical, accessible, in-depth guide to reading assessment and intervention. It provides a detailed discussion of the nature and causes of reading difficulties, which will help develop the knowledge and confidence needed to accurately assess why a student is struggling. Readers will learn a framework for organizing testing results from current assessment batteries such as the WJ-IV, KTEA-3, and CTOPP-2. Case studies illustrate each of the concepts covered. A thorough discussion is provided on the assessment of phonics skills, phonological awareness, word recognition, reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Formatted for easy reading as well as quick reference, the text includes bullet points, icons, callout boxes, and other design elements to call attention to important information. Although a substantial amount of research has shown that most reading difficulties can be prevented or corrected, standard reading remediation efforts have proven largely ineffective. School psychologists are routinely called upon to evaluate students with reading difficulties and to make recommendations to address such difficulties. This book provides an overview of the best assessment and intervention techniques, backed by the most current research findings. Bridge the gap between research and practice Accurately assess the reason(s) why a student struggles in reading Improve reading skills using the most highly effective evidence-based techniques Reading may well be the most important thing students are taught during their school careers. It is a skill they will use every day of their lives; one that will dictate, in part, later life success. Struggling students need help now, and Essentials of Understanding and Assessing Reading Difficulties shows how to get these students on track.

Experts are raving about this "must-have" resource for primary teachers that includes dozens of fun activities to help children listen to language and play with sounds. Activity cards can be cut out and laminated to create a handy reference file of fun ideas. A wide selection of reproducibles (picture cards, word cards, and manipulatives) is included.

After meeting a bevy of baby animals— including a clever monkey, a sleepy leopard, and a dusty lion cub—the baby in this story discovers the most precious creature of all . . . itself, of course! With an exuberant rhyming text by bestselling author Mem Fox and adorable cut-paper illustrations by Caldecott Honor recipient Steve Jenkins, this book is an irresistible celebration of the joyful connection between parent and child.

"Translating cutting-edge research into practical recommendations for assessment and instruction, this book has helped thousands of readers understand the key role of phonological awareness in the development of reading, writing, and spelling. It clearly shows how children's knowledge about the sound structure of spoken language contributes to literacy acquisition. Evidence-based strategies are described for enhancing all learners' phonological awareness and effectively supporting those who are struggling (ages 3-17). The book discusses ways to tailor instruction and intervention for a broad range of students, including English language learners (ELLs) and those with reading or language disorders. Subject Areas/Key Words: phonological awareness, phonological skills, phonemic awareness, phonemes, phonology, phonics, spoken language impairments, oral language, written language, reading development, early literacy development, oracy, speaking, teaching, assessments, interventions, instructional approaches, speech-language pathologists, speech-language pathology, special education, struggling learners, speech problems, speech disorders, learning disabilities, learning disorders, specific language impairments, dyslexia, reading disorders, spelling development, English language learners, at-risk students, speech-language therapists, early childhood education, preschoolers; English as a second language; second-language acquisition; learning multiple languages; metalinguistics; sounds Audience: Reading specialists, teachers, and special educators working with children ages 3-17 (PreK-12); speech-language pathologists; school psychologists"--