A National Research Council report on preventing reading disabilities or developmental dyslexia in young children (Snow, Bums, & Griffin, 1998) concludes that the majority of reading problems could be prevented by reducing the number of children who enter school inadequately prepared in at least three critical, and potentially remediable domains: Phonological processing; knowledge about print; and vocabulary. These combined domains are not assessed adequately by existing measures of reading readiness, and intervention activities that facilitate their development are absent from preschool curricula. This Phase I application has two specific aims. The first is to evaluate the feasibility of a test that will assess the three critical domains. Test development will feature state-of-the-art procedures for item selection and evaluation, with particular sensitivity to children at risk for reading failure due to poverty, limited English proficiency, and parental history of reading failure. An initial evaluation of the psychometric properties of the test will be completed by administering it to 300 3- to 5-year-old children.
The second aim i s to produce and complete an initial evaluation of prototypic intervention activities for each domain. The initial evaluation will be accomplished in a pilot study of 30 3- to 5-year-old children at-risk for reading failure.

Proposed Commercial Applications

The test and training activities to be produced should be widely used in preschool settings including Head Start centers.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Small Business Innovation Research Grants (SBIR) - Phase II (R44)
Project #
5R44HD038604-03
Application #
6682960
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-BBBP-2 (02))
Program Officer
Lyon, Reid G
Project Start
2000-05-01
Project End
2005-05-31
Budget Start
2003-06-01
Budget End
2005-05-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$236,546
Indirect Cost
Name
Pro-Ed
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Austin
State
TX
Country
United States
Zip Code
78758