The Acquisition of Reading: Cognitive, Linguistic, and Perceptual Prerequisites (review)

Reviews muscle reflex was not functioning in a defensive way against noise." Later in the test while discussing the drug, McCandless says, "I don't think there would be a drastic change." This may have been an interesting symposium to attend, but the finished product leaves this reader with a serious question as to why it was put into book form. DarrellE. Rose, Ph.D. Mayo Clinic Rochester, Mn. 55901 The Acquisition of Reading: Cognitive, Linguistic, and Perceptual Prerequisites, Frank B. Murray and John J. Pikulski (Eds.), 178 pp. + xi, University Park Press, 1978. Five papers presented at a conference on "Curriculum, Learning, and Instruction" held in 1975 at the University of Delaware, and subsequently updated for inclusion in this volume, along with critiques of those papers, provide the content for this somewhat pretentiously titled book. Instead of the broad-scope treatment which that title implies, what we have here are some interestingly written but quite narrowly focused essays and their accompanying "critiques." But it begins with a bang. In the first two, one by Richard Venezky and the other by Hans Fürth, the reader is presented with the polarities which conflict the reading scene. Venezky starts off, taking the traditionalist view in support of the formal teaching of reading based not on "the occult and the obscure" but on what we "know" from reading research, nonetheless arguing that the proper management of that instruction is of more importance in determining success or failure than is the specific instructional method. Fürth, completely contrariwise, deplores and discounts formal instruction, particularly in the early years, saying that it takes children away from those much more important kinds of activities which make it possible for the child to develop his intelligence, i.e., to learn to think in the Piagetian sense. To Fürth, formal instruction in reading is a low-level intellectual activity (although reading itself ultimately is not) and is basically a waste of a child's time. To him, any formal instruction (if indeed it is necessary at all) should come much later, perhaps when the child is somewhere between eight and ten. Because of the order in which the editors present these two key essays, the implication is that Venezky's is the voice of reason, Furth's that of the occult and obscure (the subtitle to Venezky's piece). The spark struck by the extremity of these positions is unfortunately neither capitalized upon in the critiques or in what follows, and the possibility of an exciting dialogue is lost. Instead, the remaining three papers deal with narrower topics which supplement the Venezky view of reality. The first, by Sylvia FarnhamDiggory , discusses the uses of models, and particularly of information processing models, in conducting reading research. Another, by Anne Pick, treats some issues in perception, especially visual perception. The final paper by Thomas G. Sticht relates problems in learning to read with the broader concept of literacy. Interestingly, Sticht emphasizes the importance of paying more attention to issues in achieving higher levels of adult literacy. Each of these essays introduces the reader to the topic chosen at a fairly general level and then reports research in which the writer is or has recently been engaged. They are not essays which purport to assay the topic in any complete sense. The language here is fairly technical , and the assumption is that the reader is familiar with research in the field in which the writer is working. Throughout, the critiques serve more to review and extend the message of the essays than they do to point up conflicts or issues within them. Two or three references are made, briefly, to the problems of the deaf in learning to read print and so there is not much help here for those to whom this is of central concern. Dr. Malcolm Douglas, Chairman Department of Education Claremont Graduate School Claremont, Calif. 91771 What To Teach Your Child—A Handbook For Parents of 4-6 Year Olds, Elizabeth M. Wile, 64 pp., no price listed. The Continental Press, Inc., Elizabethtown , Pa. 17022, 1978. This small, concisely written guide for parents is jam-packed with excellent ideas for enhancing a child's natural...