ABSTRACT
Jenkins and O’Connor (this volume) provide us with an excellent review of the literature on early identification and intervention for young children at risk for reading difficulties. First, critical elements of skilled reading are delineated: phonological awareness, graphophonemic knowledge, decoding or alphabetic reading skill, automatic word recognition, fluency, and language comprehension. Second, research on early screening is reviewed and “sensible actions” for identifying children at risk for reading/learning disabilities are listed. Finally, the early intervention literature is reviewed and “sensible actions” for achieving each critical element of skilled reading are proposed. In the concluding section, Jenkins and O’Connor urge us to expand the instructional emphases of phonologically driven, information-processing approaches to accommodate alternative theoretical perspectives such as that of constructivist teaching in our efforts toward the common goal of prevention and treatment of reading/learning disabilities.
