ABSTRACT
The pilot project, involving a total of twelve children, was designed to test the effectiveness of the Paired Reading technique against a more simple method, also involving parents, which emphasised praise for only the words successfully read by the children. The mothers and children in the Reinforcement Group were given the same experiences as the Paired Reading Group. The major study was conducted in schools already operating some kind of home reading scheme. But it became apparent during the study that despite this, many parents in the study were unaware of the extent of their child's failure in reading. The effect of simply informing parents of this failure was a major uncontrolled variable in the study, and may account for some of the progress in both Paired Reading and Control Groups. The comparatively greater improvement in the Paired Reading Group suggests that the technique is still more powerful than simply alerting parents to their children's failure.
