Phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK) are two of the strongest predictors of reading acquisition, and evidence shows that many New Zealand children are entering school with low levels of emergent literacy (EL) skills. The current research showed that four-year-old children identified as having low levels of EL, who participated…

Young children are surrounded by ubiquitous environmental print (e.g. signs, product labels) on a daily basis in their homes and communities. Parent-child interactions with environmental print has the potential to foster emergent literacy. A randomised controlled pre-posttest study was conducted to examine the effects of a parent-child…

We investigated the impact of story-based activities on literacy skills in pre-school children. The efficacy of story-based activities program were tested by literacy skills survey test. Results showed that, the scores of overall literacy skills and all subsets skills in the study group (n = 45) were statistically significantly higher than the…

Curriculum-based measures (CBMs) are necessary for educators to quickly assess student skill levels and monitor progress. This study examined the use of the alphabet writing fluency task, a CBM of writing, to assess handwriting fluency--that is, how well children access, retrieve, and write letter forms automatically. In the current study, the…

Curriculum-based measures (CBMs) are necessary for educators to quickly assess student skill levels and monitor progress. This study examined the use of the alphabet writing fluency task, a CBM of writing, to assess handwriting fluency--that is, how well children access, retrieve, and write letter forms automatically. In the current study, the…

This pilot study examined the effects of the Interactive Book Reading at Home (IBR; Wasik, 2009) parent training program on the emergent literacy skills of preschool children and parent beliefs about reading. A quasi-experimental, pretest and posttest design was utilized. Twenty parent-child dyads were randomly assigned to a control or treatment…

The current study used a dyadic and coconstructive approach to examine how to embed exercises that support executive functioning into early literacy instruction to empower its effects. Using a randomized controlled trial design with 100 children, we examined the effects of dyadic activities in which children scaffolded each other's learning and…

While the research on effective early reading interventions for English language learners is expanding, the majority of the research focuses on students whose native language is Spanish. This study investigated the effects of a supplemental reading program that builds phoneme awareness skills and emphasizes explicit instruction in the alphabetic…

This study examined the effects of an early reading intervention on preschool-age dual language learners' (DLL) early literacy skills. Instruction in phonological awareness and alphabet knowledge was embedded in interactive reading strategies, also known as dialogic reading. A single subject multiple baseline across subjects design was applied to…

This study examined the predictive validity of formative assessments embedded in a Tier 2 intervention curriculum for kindergarten students identified as at risk for reading difficulty. We examined when (i.e., months during the school year) measures could predict reading outcomes gathered at the end of kindergarten and whether the predictive…

Purpose: This study evaluated the efficacy of an instructive feedback strategy for modeling letter names and sounds during presentation of positive feedback within a small group phonological awareness intervention for preschoolers. Method: Two experiments were conducted using multiple baseline designs across children and behaviors. Letter name and…

We researched the efficacy of an early literacy programme in enhancing immigrant children's phonological awareness (PA) and print knowledge, including transferring learning to numeracy. Participants were 294 Ethiopian-born immigrant children in Israel at kindergarten age and one of their parents. Parent-child dyads were randomly selected to…

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a phonological awareness (PA) intervention, designed for Tier 2 instruction in a Response to Intervention (RTI) model, delivered to small groups of preschoolers. Method: A multiple-baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention on…

This study examined the effects of a 10 week invented writing program with five-year-old preschoolers (mean age 5.7 years) on their immediate post intervention literacy skills and also the facilitative effects of the intervention on the subsequent learning to read during the first 6 months of schooling. The study included 105 children (54 girls)…

This study examined the effects of a phonological awareness (PA) intervention on the phonological and alphabetic principle skills of first-grade English language learners (ELLs). Nine first-grade classrooms in two large elementary schools were screened with DIBELS Phoneme Segmentation Fluency (PSF) and Nonsense Word Fluency (NWF) in the fall and…