This 3-year longitudinal study tested and extended Sénéchal and Le Fevre's (2002) model of the relationships between preschool home literacy practices and children's literacy and language development. Parent-child reading (home literacy environment questionnaire plus children's Title Recognition Test) and parental teaching of letters, words and name writing were assessed 6 months prior to children's school entry. The 143 children (55% males; mean age 5.36 years, SD = 0.29) attended Gold Coast, Australia government Preschools. Parent-child reading and literacy teaching were only weakly correlated (r = .18), and were related to different outcomes consistent with the original model. Age, gender, memory, and non-verbal ability were controlled. Parental teaching was independently related to Preschool Woodcock Letter-Word Identification scores (R 2 change = 4.58%, p = .008). This relationship then mediated the relationships between parental teaching and Grade 1 and 2 letter-word identification, single-word reading and spelling rates, and phonological awareness (rhyme detection and phonological deletion). Parent-child reading was independently related to Grade 1 vocabulary (R 2 change = 5.6%, p =.005). Thus, both home practices are relevant, but to different aspects of literacy and language development.

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This study evaluated a model of reading skills among early adolescents (N 5 174). Measures of family history, achievement, cognitive processes and self-perceptions of abilities were obtained. Significant relationships were found between family history and children's single-word reading skills, spelling, reading comprehension, orthographic processing and children's perceived reading competence. While children with poor reading skills were five times more likely to come from a family with a history of reading difficulties, this measure did not account for additional variance in reading performance after other variables were included. Phonological, orthographic, rapid sequencing and children's perceived reading competence made significant independent contributions towards reading and spelling outcomes. Reading comprehension was explained by orthographic processing, nonverbal ability, children's attitudes towards reading and word identification. Thus, knowledge of family history and children's attitudes and perceptions towards reading provides important additional information when evaluating reading skills among a normative sample of early adolescents.

Two experiments that investigate automatic and conscious attention among migraine and visual discomfort groups are reported. The prediction of a heightened sensory sensitivity producing a processing speed advantage in migraine was tested. In Experiment 1, an automatic attention task was conducted. There was no effect of migraine group, but the high visual discomfort group responded significantly more slowly than the low visual discomfort group when 16 distractors were presented. In Experiment 2, a conscious visual attention task was conducted. No processing-speed advantage was found for migraine groups. In all conditions, the high visual discomfort group performed significantly more slowly than other groups. It was concluded that heightened sensory sensitivity could not explain the processing speed advantage found previously in migraine but may explain the processing speed disadvantage found for the high visual discomfort group. Results are discussed in terms of disordered sustained attention in the high visual discomfort group.

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