The purpose of this pilot study was to compare the relative efficacy of a manualized family psychoeducational intervention versus treatment as usual in enhancing disease knowledge, and improving the psychological and psychosocial functioning of youth with SCD and their primary caregivers. Thirty-nine (39) 7-16 year old

Past research has indicated that a significant relationship exists between young children's early home literacy environment and their reading-related skills. However, this relationship has rarely been investigated among older children with reading disabilities (RD). In the present study, the relationship between parent and child home literacy activities and children's academic functioning was investigated with a sample of 65 elementary-age children with RD. The results indicated that children's home literacy activities were not significantly related to any of their academic abilities, whereas parents' home literacy activities were significantly related to children's passage comprehension and spelling scores. However, relationships between home literacy environment and reading may be different for children with and without RD.The home environment has been considered critical in the development of a variety of cognitive and linguistic skills that have been shown to be important factors in early literacy development (Saracho, 1997b). Adams (1990), in her extensive review, identified reading aloud to children as one of the most important activities for building the skills necessary for early reading. Shared reading is believed to aid in the development of word knowledge, understanding the meaning of print, and awareness of written letters and words (Senechal, LeFevre, Thomas, & Daley, 1998). Adams (1990) estimated that children who are read to for approximately 30 minutes each night will have acquired at least 1,000 hours of print exposure when they begin kindergarten. This extensive print expo-sure is seen as an important prerequisite for children to begin to understand the phonemic structure of language and to readily identify letters. Vygotsky (1978) highlighted the importance of social context (see Ma-son & Allen, 1986, for a review) for language acquisition and underscored the significance of the use of scaffolding by more advanced users of the skill in development. Young children who are guided through the reading process by their parents learn strategies related to information processing, learn more advanced vocabulary, and are assisted in understanding aspects of the reading experience that are not well under-stood when reading alone (Leseman & de Jong, 1998). But, as Heath's (1983) extensive research indicates, there still may be important environmental differences between families in their use of language and print that are related to levels of academic functioning for some children in their later school years. Whether the family literacy environment affects reading and other academic functioning or the level of a child's reading or academic functioning affects home reading activities in the family is still an open question.The term home literacy environment generally has referred to participation in literacy-related activities in the home, which can include aspects of exposure (availability of print material) and frequency of reading (Leseman & de Jong, 1998). Saracho (1997a) proposed that parents...

Research suggests that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Reading Disability (RD) can be differentiated based on their performance on measures of naming and verbal memory. It is not known whether this same pattern characterizes adults with these disorders. In this study, adults with and without ADHD and RD were compared on naming and verbal memory abilities. Results did not support the hypothesis that adults with ADHD and RD are significantly different from each other, or from a contrast group, on naming and verbal memory measures after controlling for Full-Scale IQ (FSIQ). These results were replicated across two sets of classification criteria used to identify diagnostic groups. Factors that could account for the inconsistency in research findings with children and adult subjects are discussed.

Achievement and cognitive tests are used extensively in the diagnosis and educational placement of children with reading disabilities (RD). Moreover, research on scholastic interventions often requires repeat testing and information on practice effects. Little is known, however, about the test—retest and other psychometric properties of many commonly used measures within the beginning reader population, nor are these nationally normed or experimental measures comparatively evaluated. This study examined the test—retest reliability, practice effects, and relations among a number of nationally normed measures of word identification and spelling and experimental measures of achievement and reading-related cognitive processing tests in young children with significant RD. Reliability was adequate for most tests, although lower than might be ideal on a few measures when there was a lengthy test—retest interval or with the reduced behavioral variability that can be seen in groups of beginning readers. Practice effects were minimal. There were strong relations between nationally normed measures of decoding and spelling and their experimental counterparts and with most measures of reading-related cognitive processes. The implications for the use of such tests in treatment studies that focus on beginning readers are discussed.