The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) released a report that applies two methodological approaches new to the WWC that together aim to improve researchers' understanding of how early literacy interventions may work to improve outcomes for students in grades K-3. First, this report pilots a new taxonomy developed by early literacy experts and…

A hallmark of skilled reading is recognizing written words automatically from memory by sight. How beginning readers attain this skill is explained. They must acquire foundational knowledge, including phonemic segmentation, grapheme-phoneme knowledge, decoding, and spelling skills. When these skills are applied, spellings of words become bonded to…

The inclusion of prekindergarten programs has increased awareness as to whether or not children are gaining the readiness skills necessary for a successful entry into kindergarten. This study examined the impact of preschool experiences on kindergarteners' reading readiness levels. This study determined whether or not there were differences in…

Invented spellings refer to incorrect attempts to spell words while writing, which are important indicators of children's development of phonemic awareness. Making Words is a popular activity to teach phonics and spelling, in which students manipulate letters in sequence to construct target words and then sort them into rhyming patterns. This…

The UPSTART Summer program is a federally funded i3 validation project that uses a computer-based program to maintain and develop the literacy skills of elementary school students in rural Utah during the summer months when school is out of session. Researchers used a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of the program in forestalling…

Researchers report that early intervention can reduce and eliminate reading difficulties for early readers. What Works Clearinghouse evaluated several phonological awareness interventions, but only one had positive effects on alphabetics and one had potentially positive effects on phonological processing and alphabetics. Additionally, the most…

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…

The First Grade Pre-Screening is designed to be used at the start of the first grade school year so that teachers can obtain information about their incoming students. This information is intended to give teachers insight about what math and reading skills a student may or may not have at the beginning of the year. The information can aid teachers…

This study examined the cognitive skills associated with early reading development when children were taught by different types of instruction. Seventy-nine children (mean age at pre-test 4;10 (0.22 S.D.) and post-test 5;03 (0.21 S.D.)) were taught to read either by an eclectic approach which included sight-word learning, guessing from context and…

To develop reading acquisition in an effective way, it is necessary to take into account three goals during the process: automatic word recognition, or development of phonemic awareness, reading comprehension, and a desire for reading. This article focuses on promoting phonemic awareness in English as a second language through a program called…

In England, Higher Education institutions, together with the schools whose staff they train, are being required to incorporate synthetic phonics as one of the key approaches to the teaching of reading. Yet even if synthetic phonics can be identified as one of the component "skills" of reading, an assumption vigorously contested in this…

The "Dyslexia Training Program," developed at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, is a Tier III reading intervention program that provides intensive phonics instruction to children with dyslexia, primarily in grades two through five. It is a comprehensive two-year program that bridges the gap for school districts in which a…

In 2013-14, Letterland had strong implementation, with moderate to high fidelity within approximately 90% of Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) K-1 classrooms. The impact of Letterland on students' reading achievement was neutral to positive. A significantly higher percentage of WCPSS kindergarten students were at or above benchmark mid-year…

This review-specific protocol guides the review of research that informs the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) intervention reports in the Children and Students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder topic area. The review-specific protocol is used in conjunction with the "WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook" (version 3.0). This review focuses…

Reading research indicates a student's academic achievement is connected to his or her reading ability (Tindall & Nisbet, 2010). Children do not have sufficient reading skills because they lack the literacy skills necessary to be successful readers. These fundamental areas include phonics, reading comprehension, fluency, alphabetic awareness,…