Considerable national attention has been focused on interventions for preventing reading difficulties and fostering higher levels of literacy in all children.
There have been two large-scale committee efforts to summarize the research on reading instruction.
The first report was completed by the committee on Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, a group appointed by the National Academy of sciences at the request of the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
This group evaluated hundreds of studies in reading and related fields in order to take stock of the current status of our understanding of early reading development.
In there published report, Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, the group stressed the importance of formal instruction in both word recognition and comprehension during the early school years.