Functional illiteracy in the young adult population (ages 18 to 25) is not only a drain on the nation's economic productivity; it is also documented as a major obstacle to adequate health care and a major independent risk factor for depression and suicide. The proposed research, responsive to an NIH request for applications, has two major phases (1) determine the prevalence of poor reading skills in the young adult population; and (2) compare treatment regimes for efficacy. The latter is accomplished by a design that will permit the isolation of effective types of instruction in four areas known to be crucial to reading in children, and suspected to be so in adults; (a) phonological decoding (sounding out words), (b) fluency (i.e., automatic """"""""translation"""""""" from the letter code to the sound code and ultimately to the meaning; (c) vocabulary; and (d) text comprehension. It is expected that the different types of instruction will be differentially effective for persons with different skill profiles of strength and weakness.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD043794-05
Application #
7123392
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZHD1-DSR-R (04))
Program Officer
Miller, Brett
Project Start
2002-09-25
Project End
2007-08-31
Budget Start
2006-09-01
Budget End
2007-08-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$432,552
Indirect Cost
Name
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Department
Neurology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
937727907
City
Winston-Salem
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27157