Haskins Laboratories

Haskins Literacy Initiative

ABOUT HASKINS LABORATORIES

Haskins Laboratories, a private, non-profit research facility, was founded in 1935 for the purpose of scientific study of speech and language. Since 1965, Haskins Laboratories also has focused on reading research, quickly becoming a world leader.

READING RESEARCH

• A sample of topics studied by Haskins reading researchers:
• Development of literacy abilities, including discovery of phoneme awareness
and its importance for learning to read.
• Causes of reading failure.
• Underlying language weaknesses related to reading problems.
• How to predict which young children later will have difficulty learning to read.
• Characteristics of reading difficulties for older struggling readers.
• Genetic factors in reading ability.
• Brain activity associated with reading, reading disabilities, and remediation.
• Dialect and second-language effects on early reading development.
• The benefits of direct instruction for reading acquisition.

BRINGING THE GAINS FROM RESEARCH TO EDUCATION

• A sample of applied activities by Haskins researchers and reading specialists:
• Testifying in the United States Senate, and in State legislative sessions,    regarding the implications of reading research for reading instruction and    teacher preparation.
• Assisting national organizations disseminate information about the need to    improve pre-service training of educators to align with   research findings.
• Participating with a team of nationally recognized reading   researchers to    establish a research-supported definition of dyslexia.
• Providing workshops on research-based methods of reading   instruction,    assessment, and intervention for education professionals.
• Launching a project (Early Reading Success) in schools in CT and RI to    demonstrate the efficacy of professional development in reading instruction    for K-2nd-grade teachers.
• Undertaking a large-scale professional development project with first-grade    teachers (Mastering Reading Instruction) to study what aspects of PD are    necessary to promote noteworthy gains in teacher    knowledge, teacher    practices and student achievement.