Early Interventions for Children With Reading Problems: Study Designs and Preliminary Findings

Authors

  • Barbara R. Foorman
  • David J. Francis
  • Terri Beeler
  • Debbie Winikates
  • Jack M. Fletcher

Abstract

Preliminary results are described for a multi-year grant, entitled Early Interventionsfor Children with Reading Problems and funded by the National Institute ofChild Health and Human Development. Results from a kindergarten prevention study of 181 children in a culturally diverse school district show that 15 minutes ofdaily phonological awareness activities accelerated growth in phonological analysis skill relative to a comparison group. In a study with 113 second and third graders identified with reading disabilities, children who received an Orton-Gillingham, synthetic phonics approach outperformed children receiving a combined synthetic/analytic phonics approach or a sight-word approach in the development of literacy-related skills. However, when verbal IQ and ethnicity were included in the model of skill development, children tended to make comparable gains in all three programs. Finally, a study of375 first and second graders eligible for Title 1 tutorials highlights the importance ofexplicit instruction in the alphabetic code during classroom instruction if reading failure is to be avoided.

Issue

Section

Articles