This website is not primarily about research, so the information below is just what I consider key, relevant information. For lots more about literacy research, see the following:
- Language at the Speed of Sight by Prof Mark Seidenberg.
- Reading in the Brain by Dr Stanislas Dehaene. Watch him on video here and here.
- Articles by Dr Louisa Moats (many available free online – just search by title and author). Two excellent video lectures by Dr Moats are here and here.
- AUSPELD, and the websites of its state-based affiliates, or try the easy-to-read Understanding Learning Difficulties: A Guide for Parents website, or download a free version of the book here.
- 2014 Meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials of treatment approaches for children and adults with reading difficulties.
- Videos by The Reading League in the US, starting with this one by David Kilpatrick.
- Learning Difficulties Australia’s website
- Outside the Square
- Association for Direct Instruction
- LD Online, and in particular this article.
- Developmental Disorders of Language and Literacy Network – this is an invitation-only network for professionals interested in language and literacy difficulties, and eliminating the gap between what reading/spelling researchers know and what happens in classrooms.
- SpellTalk listserve: this is a professional discussion group about spelling based in the US, and a good source of information about current research.
Literacy statistics
How literate are Australians? Recent large-scale international studies suggest that far too many Australians are struggling with reading and spelling. Click here for more information and links to these studies.
National Inquiries
National inquiries into the teaching of reading have been held in Australia, the UK and the USA.
All the reports are online so you can read them yourself – click here for the links and what I regard as a few key excerpts.
Dyslexia reports
Dyslexia is part of Specific Learning Disorder in the latest edition of the diagnostic manual used by medical and allied professions (DSM-5). In Australia and the UK there have been recent reports describing about the difficulties and needs of people with decoding problems. Click here for more information and the relevant links.
Literature reviews
A useful literature review on literacy-teaching in Australia was published by ACER in 2002, called Closing the gap between research and practice – foundations for the acquisition of literacy.
Scottish Studies – Clackmannanshire and West Dunbartonshire
Two key, long-term studies into literacy-teaching methodology in Scotland have been published in recent years and are worth highlighting – one conducted in Clackmannanshire and one in West Dunbartonshire. Click here for a brief overview and links to their reports.
Policy papers
Two of Australia’s most respected reading scientists wrote a paper in 2007 called Learning to Read in Australia, which remains very relevant.
Follow
email
Hi Alison,
I enjoyed your talk at the LDA presentation of Maryanne Wolf. I remember you showed a review of research, from memory, about Levelled Literacy Intervention showing that it does not make much of an impact. Could you please send me this link?
I am an LDA consultant member who is doing Year One intervention in a school that has purchased all the F&P kits (against my recommendation). I have said it does not have good results and the head of English would like to see where I’ve got that idea from because she has only heard positive things!!
Kind regards,
Helen
Hi Helen, I put the links to the things I was talking about at the Wolf seminar in this blog post: http://www.spelfabet.com.au/2016/09/filling-the-gaps.
The F&P publicity all says that it’s research/evidence-based, but if you look at THEIR OWN RESEARCH (published on their website but not in a peer-reviewed journal, so whether we really call it research anyway is arguable), it found that improvements that could be attributed to the program were not statistically significant, see http://www.heinemann.com/fountasandpinnell/research/lliefficacystudyreport2012.pdf. But they bury this in a lot of verbiage explaining this away, and a lot of glossy marketing, because they know teachers are not taught how to critically evaluate research.
All the best, Alison C