The Promise of Computer Programs in Narrowing Gaps in Early Literacy Skills

• In Event: The Impact of Multimedia on Early Literacy Development and Essential Skills

Abstract

Purpose. Living Letters is an adaptive game designed to promote children’s combining of how the proper name sounds with their knowledge of how the name looks. This web-based computer program, with more intensive practice and adapted feedback than could be offered by teachers, affords activities that prompt young children to pay attention to print. We aimed at testing whether the gap in early literacy skills narrows when children with early literacy delays play on their own once a week during three months with Living Letters.

Method. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was carried out in a sample of 884 five-year-old Dutch children from 90 schools seriously delayed in code-related knowledge. These children lagged behind in early literacy skills according to a standardized test (the CITO language test for kindergarten children). The selected sample varied from 2 to 46 children per school. Eligible children were randomly assigned to Living Letters, Living Books (a book reading program on the computer stimulating vocabulary but not phonemic awareness), a computer game not related to reading, and a control group of normally performing pupils, stratified for school and gender.
Before and after the intervention teachers tested participants individually with a digital task. This task included a receptive vocabulary test, a meaning recognition test (both linked to words originated from the Living Books used in the study), a letter knowledge test, and a phonemic test.
The program registered how often target children played the games and how many errors they made. The researchers had access to this information and contacted the teachers by phone or email when children in their classes did not spend sufficient time on completing the program.

Results. The intervention was carried out during February-June 2013 and pre and post-tests are returned and entered into the data base for about 800 pupils. This summer we will analyze the data testing (1) whether a relatively short computer-assisted intervention can be an effective tool to boost the ability to identify sounds in words as may appear from the result that less children lag behind in those skills compared to Living Books and the program with games and catch up compared to the control group of normally performing pupils; (2) Living Letters is expected to be less effective as a boost of vocabulary compared to Living Books.

Significance. This study may support the need for remedial programs at the kindergarten-age, and demonstrate that a brief, intensive treatment can improve the capacity to benefit from beginning reading instruction in the early grades. We look for evidence indicating that pre-emptive measures in kindergarten can effectively interrupt a potentially downward spiral at an early stage in the learn-to-read process although not all eligible children may be susceptible to the intervention to the same extent (Kegel, Bus, & Van IJzendoorn, 2011). [461]

Authors

• Adriana G. Bus, Leiden University

• Rachel Plak, Leiden University

• Cornelia Kegel, Leiden University