Manifesto for new directions in developmental science.

Although developmental science has always been evolving, these times of fast-paced and profound social and scientific changes easily lead to disorienting fragmentation rather than coherent scientific advances. What directions should developmental science pursue to meaningfully address real-world problems that impact human development throughout the lifespan? What conceptual or policy shifts are needed to steer the field in these directions? The present manifesto is proposed by a group of scholars from various disciplines and perspectives within developmental science to spark conversations and action plans in response to these questions. After highlighting four critical content domains that merit concentrated and often urgent research efforts, two issues regarding "how" we do developmental science and "what for" are outlined. This manifesto concludes with five proposals, calling for integrative, inclusive, transdisciplinary, transparent, and actionable developmental science. Specific recommendations, prospects, pitfalls, and challenges to reach this goal are discussed.

Global Approaches to Early Learning Research and Practice: An Introduction.

This chapter introduces the issue, highlighting the importance of early childhood development and learning.

Bilingualism: research and policy.

Bilingualism, commonplace throughout the world, is not well accepted or supported in many parts of the United States. Education policies and practices regarding bilingualism are often based on myths and attitudes rather than facts, despite scientific evidence on both the disadvantages and advantages of bilingualism. Based on a brief overview of this evidence, I assert that we should embrace more informed policies and practice. Researchers should also work toward new and more complex research approaches to delve more deeply into how the brain organizes and reorganizes with language learning. Despite the continuing need for more research, we know enough to put in place (and study) informed policies and practices that can benefit all children. Now is the time for evidence-based practice, evidence-based policies, and integrative research on bilingualism and education.

Moving closer to a public health model of language and learning disabilities: the role of genetics and the search for etiologies.

Continued progress in language and learning disabilities (LDs) research requires a renewed focused on issues of etiology. Genetics research forms a central tenet of such an agenda and is critical in clarifying relationships among oral language development, acquisition of literacy and mathematics, executive function skills, and comorbid conditions. For progress to be made, diversified efforts must continue to emphasize molecular and behavioral genetics (including quantitative genetics) approaches, in concert with multi-disciplinary and multi-modal projects, to provide an integrated understanding of the behavioral and biological manifestations of language and learning disabilities. Critically, increased efforts to include ethnic, socio-economic, and linguistically diverse participant samples across a range of developmental stages is required to meet the public health needs of learners in the US and across the world. Taken together, this body of work will continue to enhance our understanding of LDs and help us move toward a truly prevention based approach to language and learning disabilities.

Models of Reading in Different Orthographies: An Introduction.

The authors provide a summary of the articles in the special series on reading development in different orthographies from various writing systems and scripts.

Epilogue: implications of research on English language learners for classroom and clinical practice.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present article is to provide the closing context for this clinical forum that showcases prereading and reading development research with Spanish-speaking English language learning children. METHOD: Background information, including legislation, judicial review, and past research, are used to interpret the results of the studies in the clinical forum. IMPLICATIONS: Suggestions for practitioners and future research are presented based on the clinical forum and background information.

Prologue: development of english literacy in Spanish-speaking children: transforming research into practice.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the present article is to provide the background for the clinical forum contained in this issue, which showcases prereading and reading development research that was conducted with Spanish-speaking children who were English language learners. METHOD: We focus on the articles presented in this clinical forum and provide the background for the research. IMPLICATIONS: There is a need for further educational research to ensure that practitioners achieve literacy for all children.

A Public Health Approach to Improving the Lives of Adult Learners: Introduction to the Special Issue on Adult Literacy Interventions.

Addressing the literacy needs of adult basic and secondary education learners must form a core part of a broader public health effort to increase educational and health outcomes for these individuals and their families. Adult learners constitute a significant proportion of the overall adult U.S. population and a proportion that impacts, directly and indirectly, on the physical and economic health of millions of families and society writ large. Enhancing the literacy skills of low literate adults has proven difficult, hampered by the relative dearth of research data on struggling adult learners and effective intervention approaches, the contextual challenges of delivering intensive interventions, limited personal and systemic resources, and competing demands on learners' time. We propose a systems level view of adult low-literacy as one that holds promise and provides a basic framework for providing coordinated, comprehensive, and integrated services, but that requires additional research to support. Informed and coordinated efforts with the pre-kindergarten to twelfth grade education system and health and labor services sectors is needed if we are to improve the lives of these adults and their families.

Advances and remaining challenges in adult literacy research.

Low literacy levels in adult learners pose an educational and public health challenge to practitioners and the scientific community. Increasing demands placed on literacy can limit opportunities in the workplace and access to health-related resources, negatively affecting public health. Current estimates from the National Center for Education Statistics suggest that more than 40 million adults in the United States possess only the most basic and concrete literacy skills. Despite the estimated number of learners possessing minimal literacy skills in English in the United States, there remains a paucity of research focused on adult learners to inform remediation efforts. This special issue of the Journal of Learning Disabilities represents an important step in highlighting the current scientific knowledge base and the implications for future directions and lines of inquiry with adult learners.