Developmental patterns in elemental reading skills: Visual discrimination of primary-type upper-case and lower-case letters

Abstract

Two hundred children in grades K-3 were administered visual, matching-to-sample tasks involving, (a) upper-case primary type and (b) lower-case primary type. Each upper- or lower-case letter was embedded in a display along with the three letters that had been rated as maximally similar to it in form. Performance was analyzed by calculating the percentage of students in each of four age groups correctly discriminating each item. This analysis revealed clear developmental trends and also showed performance to be higher on upper-than on lower-case letters. An ancillary, factor analytic solution was also computed and is discussed. Implications both for future research and concerning the style of type used in beginning readers are presented. © 1970, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.