# Advances in Reading Intervention  
Research to Practice to Research  
The Extraordinary Brain Series, XIV

## About the Editors

### Carol McDonald Connor, Ph.D.  
Senior Learning Scientist, Learning Sciences Institute  
Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona

### Peggy McCardle, Ph.D., M.P.H.  
Owner, Peggy McCardle Consulting, LLC  
Seminole, Florida

# Contents

- About the Editors ... ix  
- About the Contributors ... xi  
- The Dyslexia Foundation and the Extraordinary Brain Series ... xxiii  
- Acknowledgments ... xxvii

## Part I Introduction

### Chapter 1  
Research to Practice to Research: The Importance of Reciprocity to Building Better Interventions  
*Carol McDonald Connor and Peggy McCardle*

### Chapter 2  
An Overview of Reading Intervention Research: Perspectives on Past Findings, Present Questions, and Future Needs  
*Maureen W. Lovett*

## Part II Basic Considerations for Reading Intervention:

### Behavior, Neurobiology, and Genetics

### Chapter 3  
The Growth of Self-Regulation in the Transition to School  
*Frederick J. Morrison*

### Chapter 4  
Innovative Data Summary Measures Provide Novel Insights on Reading Performance  
*Christopher W. Bartlett, Andrew Yates, Judy F. Flax, and Linda M. Brzustowicz*

### Chapter 5  
The Role of Rapid Automatized Naming in Reading Disruption: An Application of the Cusp Catastrophe  
*Georgios Sideridis, George K. Georgiou, Panagiotis G. Simos, Angeliki Mouzaki, and Dimitrios Stamovlasis*

### Chapter 6  
Eye-Movement Research in Reading: Enhancing Focus on the Development of Reading and Reading Disabilities  
*Brett Miller*

### Chapter 7  
Neurobiological Bases of Word Recognition and Reading Comprehension: Distinctions, Overlaps, and Implications for Instruction and Intervention  
*Laurie E. Cutting, Stephen Kent Bailey, Laura A. Barquero, and Katherine Aboud*

### Chapter 8  
Integrating Neurobiological Findings in Search of a Neurochemical "Signature" of Dyslexia  
*Stephanie N. Del Tufo and Kenneth R. Pugh*

### Chapter 9  
The Genetic Classroom: How Behavioral Genetics Can Inform Education  
*Sara A. Hart*

### Integrative Summary 1: The Future of Reading Research: New Concepts and Tools and the Need for Detailed Genetic and Neurobiological Contexts  
*Nadine Gaab*

## Part III Reading and Writing Interventions: Research to Inform Practice

### Chapter 10  
What Practitioners Think and Want to Know  
*Joan A. Mele-McCarthy*

### Chapter 11  
Literacy in the Early Grades: Research to Practice to Research  
*Carol McDonald Connor*

### Chapter 12  
Addressing Dialect Variation in Early Reading Instruction for African American Children  
*Nicole Patton Terry*

### Chapter 13  
Reading Development Among English Learners  
*Nonie K. Lesaux*

### Chapter 14  
Students with Reading Difficulties Who Are English Learners  
*Melodee A. Walker, Philip Capin, and Sharon Vaughn*

### Chapter 15  
The Letra Program: A Web-Based Tutorial Model for Preparing Teachers to Improve Reading in Early Grades  
*Juan E. Jiménez*

### Chapter 16  
Struggling with Writing: The Challenges for Children with Dyslexia and Language Learning Difficulty When Learning to Write  
*Vincent Connelly and Julie E. Dockrell*

### Chapter 17  
Fostering the Capabilities that Build Writing Achievement  
*Rui A. Alves and Teresa Limpo*

### Chapter 18  
Effectiveness of a Beginning Reading Intervention: Compared with What? Examining the Counterfactual in Experimental Research  
*Michael D. Coyne*

### Integrative Summary 2: Translating Reading Research into Effective Interventions for All Children Who Struggle with Reading  
*Julie A. Washington*

## Part IV Finale: Looking to the Future

### Chapter 19  
Innovation and Technology that Can Inform Reading Interventions  
*David J. Jodoin*

### Chapter 20  
Reading Intervention in Perspective  
*Donald L. Compton and Laura M. Steacy*

### Chapter 21  
Moving Forward in Reading Intervention Research and Practice  
*Peggy McCardle and Carol McDonald Connor*

## An Overview of Reading Intervention Research

### Perspectives on Past Findings, Present Questions, and Future Needs  
*Maureen W. Lovett*

Three decades of work in the relatively young science of reading intervention research have been productive, revealing many positive findings about how to intervene with children and adolescents who struggle to learn to read due to dyslexia, reading disabilities, or other causes. There appears to be compelling evidence that effective intervention for readers struggling with acquiring basic reading skills should include:  
1. Explicit, systematic, phonologically based instruction with ample opportunities for practice and cumulative review.  
2. Systematic instruction on all levels of written language structure, from subsyllabic and sublexical dimensions to different text and discourse structures.  
3. Instruction and scaffolded practice to promote the application and transfer of newly acquired skills to new materials.  
4. Modeling, teaching, and mentoring of specific reading, self-regulation, and self-monitoring strategies.  
5. An integration of decoding and spelling to stress the reciprocity of these activities.  
6. Daily attention to vocabulary growth and comprehension development using a variety of appealing and complex texts.

These findings highlight the need for focused, evidence-based strategies in reading intervention.