This book provides an overview of current research on the development of reading skills as well as practices to assist educational professionals with assessment, prevention, and intervention for students with reading difficulties. The book reviews the Componential Model of Reading (CMR) and provides assessment techniques, instructional recommendations, and application models. It pinpoints specific cognitive, psychological, and environmental deficits contributing to low reading skills, so educators can accurately identify student problems and design and implement appropriate interventions. Chapters offer methods for assessing problems in decoding, word and sound recognition, and comprehension. In addition, chapters emphasize the recognition of student individuality as readers and learners, from understanding distinctions between difficulties and disabilities to the effects of first-language orthography on second-language learning.

Section I: Reading Development and Difficulties.- Chapter 1. Componential Model of Reading (CMR): Implications for Assessment and Instruction of Literacy Problems.- Chapter 3. Phonics and Spelling: Learning the Structure of Language at the Word Level.- Chapter 4. Orthographic Mapping Facilitates Sight Word Memory and Vocabulary Learning.- Chapter 5. Reading Comprehension and Reading Comprehension Difficulties.- Chapter 6. Assessing Reading in Second Language Learners: Development, Validity, and Educational Considerations.- Section II: Assessment and Intervention.- Chapter 7. The Identification of Reading Disabilities.- Chapter 8. Effective Prevention and Intervention for Word-Level Reading Difficulties.- Section III: Biological Perspectives.- Chapter 9. Behavior-Genetic Studies of Literacy Development: A Commentary for Professionals in Psychology and Education.- Chapter 10. The Neurobiological Strands of Developmental Dyslexia: What We Know and What We Don't Know.