The goal of the present intervention research was to test whether guided invented spelling would facilitate entry into reading for at-risk kindergarten children. The 56 participating children had poor phoneme awareness, and as such, were at risk of having difficulty acquiring reading skills. Children were randomly assigned to one of three training…

This report describes a cluster randomized control trial (RCT) intervention study of the effectiveness of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) Web-based literacy system using a classroom-level RCT intervention with 1,067 children in 74 kindergarten and Grade 1 or Grade 1/2 classrooms across Canada. The authors closely followed the CONSORT criteria for executing…

Several research studies linking early phonemic awareness to the prevention of later reading difficulties strongly suggest that phoneme segmentation and blending, rather than rhyming and alliteration abilities, are the key aspects of phonemic awareness that are related to the prevention of difficulties. Yet there is a persistent belief among many…

Examines the utility of teaching reading using rime-based reading strategies with prereaders. Measures rhyming, phoneme identity, letter-sound knowledge, phonological working memory, First Nations language speaking ability, and reading. Concludes that progress in phonological awareness and word reading can be enhanced in prereaders by adding…

Two studies compare phonology-based instructional strategies designed for improving spelling skills of elementary school children against instruction strategies that rely only on visual exposure of words. In both studies, posttests showed that children taught through psycholinguistic and phoneme awareness methods significantly outperformed the…

Two studies--one quasi-experimental and one randomized experiment--were designed to evaluate the effectiveness of supplemental instruction in structural analysis and oral reading practice for second- and third-grade students with below-average word reading skills. Individual instruction was provided by trained paraeducators in single- and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of code-oriented supplemental instruction for kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties. Paraeducators were trained to provide 18 weeks of explicit instruction in phonemic skills and the alphabetic code. Students identified by their teachers meeting study eligibility criteria…

This study investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of the Reading Recovery early intervention. At-risk 1st-grade students were randomly assigned to receive the intervention during the 1st or 2nd half of the school year. High-average and low-average students from the same classrooms provided additional comparisons. Thirty-seven teachers from…

Two studies of Grade 1 reading interventions for English-language (EL) learners at risk for reading problems were conducted. Two samples of EL students were randomly assigned to a treatment or untreated comparison group on the basis of their language of instruction for core reading (i.e., Spanish or English). In all, 91 students completed the…

Investigated the effect of developmentally appropriate literacy interventions integrated into circle time in a Head Start setting on the detection of rhyme by 4-5 year olds. Found that the group receiving phonological-awareness treatment performed better on a rhyme detection test than the semantic intervention group. (JPB)

A study evaluated the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) to provide training in phonological sensitivity skills to 45 preschool children at-risk for reading problems. Children exposed to CAI made significantly greater gains on rhyming and elision skills compared to controls. Expressive vocabulary scores were predictive of pre- to posttest…

A program to teach young children about phonological structure was evaluated with 64 experimental group and 62 control group preschoolers in Australia. Results support the efficacy of the program and the principle that phonological awareness and letter knowledge are necessary but not sufficient for acquisition of the alphabetic principle. (SLD)