This study was an evaluation of a parent delivered, computer based beginning reading program with a group of 15 Kindergarten and Grade 1 students. Completing the Funnix program at home through a CD copy was expected to produce educationally and statistically significant improvements in phonemic awareness, letter-sound fluency, non-word decoding skills, and oral reading fluency, when compared to the outcomes for a similar group of 16 students in a wait list comparison group. Data were analysed using univariate analyses of covariance incorporating effect sizes. Statistically significant treatment effects were found for Kindergarten students in the intervention group on letter-sound fluency, oral reading fluency, nonword decoding, and phonemic awareness skills. Grade 1 students in the intervention group demonstrated significant improvement over time on letter-sound fluency, letter-name knowledge, non-word decoding and oral reading fluency; however, these improvements were not significantly greater than those for the Grade 1 comparison group. It was concluded that Kindergarten students gained the most benefits, and that at risk students may represent a fruitful target audience.
The Funnix program and reading skills of Kindergarten and Grade 1 studentsAn ongoing subject of debate in educational research is how the complex skills involved in learning to read should be taught to children. Perhaps the most definitive information to date regarding reading instruction was presented in the National Reading Panel report (National Reading Panel, 2000). The specific areas of reading instruction the Panel noted as crucial were phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. For children in pre-school and in their first year of formal schooling, the Panel found that training in phonemic awareness skills, such as blending and segmenting, provided the strongest benefits (National Reading Panel, 2000). It further recommended that conjoint phonemic awareness and phonics emphases should be taught directly, rather than incidentally, as effective instruction in both skills leads to early progress in reading and spelling. Computer delivered instruction was considered a potentially powerful tool for teaching these skills
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