Literacy development in Canada.

Abstract

Literacy development has been found to have a considerable influence on individuals' lives, modem society, and its economy. As a consequence, a great deal of attention has been devoted to the facets of literacy, the conditions that facilitate its development, and its impact. This special issue of Canadian Psychology provides a sample of current research programmes carried out on literacy development by Canadian researchers in psychology and education. The topics addressed include emergent literacy, the longitudinal prediction of reading development, the development of oral reading and reading comprehension, literacy development amongst French immersion students, the importance of culturally and developmentally appropriate practices in literacy instruction, and the prevention of reading difficulties. The concluding article provides an overview of the current definitions of learning/reading disabilities in Canadian provinces and territories.

Children reading for pleasure : investigating predictors of reading achievement and the efficacy of a paired-reading intervention to foster children's literacy skills

“…Reading fluency is identified as one of several component skills associated with reading comprehension (Desrochers & Major, 2008;Kuhn & Stahl, 2003;NRP, 2000). If a reader has to spend too much time and energy attempting to decode and identify the words, they will not be able to concentrate on deciphering the meaning of the text which can then negatively impact their overall understanding of the text ( found to be the only well-supported approach for improving reading fluency (NRP, 2000).…”