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Pattern languages have begun to appear and mature as a presentation of the structures and processes that support the building of complex software systems. A pattern language describes how to compose structures in a particular domain such as telecommunications, client-server architecture, or object-oriented programming, to achieve system-level architectures that are greater than the sum of their parts. A problem lurks on the horizon: How do you compose patterns from multiple domains-from multiple pattern languages-in a single system? For example, today there is nothing other than an ad hoc approach to combining the pattern languages for telecommunications and for object-oriented design to build object-oriented telecommunications systems from the respective pattern languages. To understand the solution to this dilemma, it pays to examine sequences: an important aspect of pattern application that is often overlooked. Sequences are the loci of concern about interleaving patterns, whether from a single pattern language or multiple pattern languages. Sequences are critical because pattern languages represent long-term archives of the rhythms of critical, recurring sequences.

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This paper addresses a gap in research regarding the efficacy of software programs to help children with reading difficulties. Forty-two children aged 5-13 years identified as poor readers participated in a study over twelve weeks using Reading Doctor, a software program targeting phonemic awareness, orthographic-phonemic mappings, decoding ability and sight word recognition. Measures were taken using the Sutherland Phonological Awareness Test - Revised (SPAT-R), the Test of Word Reading Efficiency (TOWRE), and the graphemes and decoding subtests of the Phonological Awareness Test 2 (PAT-2). A quasi-experimental one group study with three multiple baseline measures was used. The dependent variables/measures were assessed seven times over a period of 32 weeks, allowing the research to be completed in the school-allocated time frame. Significant improvements were found on all three measures of phonological/phonemic awareness and word-reading efficiency. These improvements were maintained when assessed three months later, during which time the software program was not used.