Not very many years ago, it was common for language researchers and theorists to argue that language development was somehow special and separate from other aspects of development. It was a period when the "1 ittle 1 inguist" view of language development was common, and much discussion was devoted to develop mental "linguistic universals," in contrast to more broadly defined cognitive universals. It seemed to me at the time (and still does) that such views reflected more their promulgators...

This book serves as a succinct resource on the cognitive requirements of reading. It provides a coherent, overall view of reading and learning to read, and does so in a relatively sparse fashion that supports retention. The initial sections of the book describe the cognitive structure of reading and the cognitive foundation upon which that structure is built. This is followed by discussions of how an understanding of these cognitive requirements can be used in practice with standards, asse...

Literacy is arguably the most important goal of schooling as, to a large extent, it determines young children’s educational and life chances and is fundamental in achieving social justice. New Zealand’s literacy education programme has long been regarded as one of the world’s most successful approaches to teaching literacy skills to young children. Excellence and Equity in Literacy Education questions this widely held assumption. In the late 1990s the New Zealand government develo...

First published in 1986, this authoritative book contains a selection of original, research based, reports of studies conducted in Australia and New Zealand in the field of Child Development. The topics have been arranged into four major sections – cognitive issues in development, language and reading development, perpetual motor development and social aspects of development. Both pure and applied research issues are presented, and the chapters cover child development from infancy to adole...