Purpose: Phonological awareness (PA), the awareness of sounds in spoken words, is strongly linked to reading outcomes. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding the effectiveness of PA instruction without including print (i.e. PA without exposure to words or letters). Specifically, is PA-only instruction just as effective in improving reading…

This mixed methods study explored the influence of an interactive writing intervention on preschoolers' skills of emergent literacy, as well as teacher perceptions of the intervention. Before the intervention assessment scores were collected on the subscales of letter name identification, letter sound identification, onset-rime blending, and…

Understanding the early literacy abilities of children who use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is essential for designing and testing methods of reading intervention focused on printed orthography. School-based professionals need assessments that measure word reading skills of students with heterogenous speech and physical…

Speech sound disorder (SSD) puts children at risk for word reading difficulties but does not guarantee them. Research on early literacy skills in children with SSD has primarily focused on phonological awareness due to speech sound deficits associated with SSD. Researchers have begun to examine multiple factors beyond phonological awareness that…

Background: Despite evidence that synthetic phonics teaching has increased reading attainments, a sizable minority of children struggle to acquire phonics skills and teachers lack clear principles for deciding what types of "additional" support are most beneficial. Synthetic phonics teaches children to read using a decoding strategy to…

In Denmark there is an ongoing trend towards a more ambitious literacy instruction in the first school year (Kindergarten). This calls for a clarification of present-day reading levels, and for a profile of the students who become readers while attending the semi-formal literacy program. The present study examined the extent to which a group of…

Foreign language was recently added to Japan's national primary school curriculum. Phoneme-Grapheme Recognition (PGR) skills are a critical step in both L1 and L2 development. Due to its simplistic approach and the lack of new investment in teacher training, research regarding the impact on PGR skills are important. This study tested the relative…

The present study examined a six-component theoretical model of word reading acquisition in 449 Spanish-speaking children from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Measures of phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), vocabulary, letter name-sound knowledge, and parent education were obtained at the beginning of kindergarten and a…

An inequality in literacy rates exists between deaf children and their hearing peers. Research indicates that visual phonic interventions such as Visual Phonics used alongside a phonics program enhances grapheme-phoneme correspondence. That practice in turn improves overall literacy achievement. However, as rates deaf literacy continue to lag…

Background: Research acknowledges the importance of phonological processing and orthographic processing for reading and spelling in both consistently and inconsistently written languages. While the focus has tended to be on the role of phonological processing in languages with consistent orthographies, the role of orthographic processing,…

Family engagement and family literacy are two of the most important or components for building a strong foundation for children's academic success. Family engagement is about spending quality time with children every day by talking, playing, and asking questions, which builds bonds and promotes language development. Family literacy supports…

In recent years, the number of English learners (ELs) in U.S. public schools has rapidly grown, with Hispanic children accounting for more than half of Texas public school students, including pre-kindergarten and early childhood education. ELs continue to demonstrate lower reading achievement in comparison to their native English-speaking peers.…

The What Works Clearinghouse™ is a federally funded source of scientific evidence for what works in education. The What Works Clearinghouse aims to disseminate findings from rigorous education research to the education community. One mechanism for accomplishing this aim is the production of practice guides. Panels of national content experts,…

An insufficient number of studies investigated the criteria for Arabic letter teaching in schools. Teachers play an integral role in understanding Arabic letters among young children, as it is essential for acquiring reading in the Arabic language early in life. The criteria for teaching letters in a current study include ease of pronunciation,…

Spelling difficulties is referred to as dictation difficulties in China. The visual-auditory binding deficit hypothesis suggested that Chinese dictation difficulties can be correlated with deficits in binding visual and auditory information. However, how Chinese characters are mentally represented in children with dictation difficulties remained…