ORTHOGRAPHIC LEARNING, PHONOLOGICAL RECODING, AND SELF-TEACHING David L. Share DEPARTMENT OF LEARNING DISABILITIES, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA, MOUNT CARMEL, 31905, HAIFA, ISRAEL I. INTRODUCTION A . PROLOGUE B . THE CRUCIAL ROLE OF ORTHOGRAPHIC LEARNING IN THE ACQUISITION OF SKILLED READING II. THE SELF-TEACHING THEORY OF ORTHOGRAPHIC LEARNING A . SOME HISTORICAL BACKGROUND B . KEY FEATURES OF SELF-TEACHING III. EMPIRICAL FINDINGS A . THE EARLY PIONEERS B . STUDIES OF ORTHOGRAPHIC LEARNING WITHIN THE SELF- TEACHING FRAMEWORK C . INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN SELF-TEACHING, DYSLEXICS, AND OTHER POOR READERS D . EARLY ONSET E . OTHER SELF-TEACHING MECHANISMS? IV. SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND THE WAY AHEAD ACKNOWLEDGEMENT REFERENCES I. Introduction A. PROLOGUE First, I would like to ask the reader to read the following short passage. Please read at your own natural reading pace—much as you would read a light novel. In the middle of Australia is the hottest town in the world. This town is called Sloak and it’s right in the middle of the desert. In Sloak, the temperature can reach 60 degrees. It’s so hot that even the flies drop dead and the rubber tires on the cars start to melt. You can even fry an egg on the roof of your car. 31 Advances in Child Development and Behavior R.V. Kail : Editor Copyright r 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.