The proposed research will integrate the diagnostic strengths and behavior-genetic analyses of Research Projects I, II, and III with our studies of computer-based remediation for word decoding problems in disabled readers. During each year, 20 reading disabled twin pairs tested in Projects I, II, and III will read interesting stories on the computer for a half hour each day, in the home, over a six month training period. They will target difficult words in the stories with a mouse for immediate orthographic and speech feedback. The computer will emphasize important relations between word or subword letter groups and their corresponding speech sounds by displaying the letter patterns in reverse video while a highly intelligible speech synthesizer simultaneously pronounces them. The relative benefits of segmented and whole-word feedback for the remediation of reading and phonological deficits will be compared. A subgroup of disabled readers will also receive computer-based training in phoneme awareness before reading on the computer. Interactions will be examined between-the different treatment effects and individual differences in disabled readers' initial profiles of component reading and language skills measured in Research Projects I, II, and III.
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