Developing Early Literacy Skills: A Meta‐Analysis of Alphabet Learning and Instruction

Abstract

Alphabet knowledge is a hallmark of early literacy and facilitating its development has become a primary objective of pre-school instruction and intervention. However, little agreement exists about how to promote the development of alphabet knowledge effectively. A meta-analysis of the effects of instruction on alphabet outcomes demonstrated that instructional impacts differed by type of alphabet outcome examined and content of instruction provided. School-based instruction yielded larger effects than home-based instruction; small-group instruction yielded larger effects than individual tutoring programs. We found minimal evidence of transfer of alphabet instruction to early phonological, reading, or spelling skills. Implications for research and practice are discussed.In the field of early literacy, alphabet knowledge refers to children's familiarity with letter forms, names, and corresponding sounds, as measured by recognition, production, and writing tasks. Together, such alphabet knowledge represents an important component of emergent literacy (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Children's knowledge of letter names and sounds is the best predictor of their later reading and spelling abilities (Hammill, 2004;Scarborough, 1998;Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carlson, & Foorman, 2004). Letter name and letter sound knowledge predict subsequent literacy skills independently of other important predictors including phonological awareness and oral language (Burgess & Lonigan, 1998;McBride-Chang, 1999;Wagner, Torgesen, & Rashotte, 1994). Preschool and kindergarten students with poor knowledge of letter names and sounds are more likely to struggle with learning to read and be classified as having reading disabilities (Gallagher, Frith, & Snowling, 2000;O'Connor & Jenkins, 1999;Torppa, Poikkeus, Laakso, Eklund, & Lyytinen, 2006). These children tend to fall further behind their peers in reading acquisition, leading to gaps in spelling, reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension skills (Stanovich, 1986;Torgesen, 2002).For these reasons, alphabet knowledge has become an important learning goal for young children. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) recognizes development of the alphabetic principle as a goal for the preschool years and proficiency in letter discrimination, letter naming, and letter-sound correspondences are expected during the kindergarten year (NAEYC, 1998). Standards for Head Start (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & Administration for Children and Families, 2003) require children to demonstrate awareness of letters as individual symbols and the Correspondence concerning the manuscript ought to be sent to Shayne B. Piasta, The Ohio State University, Preschool Language and Literacy Lab, 535B Arps Hall, 1945 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43210-1172, (piasta.1@osu.edu Despite these initiatives, relatively little is known about the impact of early instruction on the development of alphabet knowledge. This fact is especially troublesome as large numb...

Science learning in early years: Effects of the Chinese television series Big Bird Looks at the World

“…Effect sizes of this magnitude, typically described as in the small to medium range (Cohen, 1988), are common in educational research (corresponding, for example, to correlation values of 0.2 or less), and especially in intervention research. For example, a recently published meta-analysis that synthesized more than 60 treatmentcontrol studies of interventions designed to teach alphabet learning to young children found effect sizes similar to those in the current report (Piasta & Wagner, 2010), with standardized mean effect sizes ranging from d = 0.14 to d = 0.65, in the small to medium range. However, as the authors of the meta-analysis note, these relatively small statistical effects nevertheless represent meaningful advancements beyond the status quo in instruction.…”

Differences in Mean Number of Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Words Decoded between Letter-Sound Readers and Non Letter-Sound Readers

“…These first steps involve a) letter naming, b) phonics, and c) phonemic awareness approaches [8] [29] [58]. This literature review section presents data on these three main beginning reading approaches.…”

“…In the United States letter name instruction remains a first step in teaching children to read [1] [8] [29] [58]. State curriculum standards throughout the nation require children to look at letters, often starting with capitals, to learn to name letters [59].…”

Phonological Awareness Program: A longitudinal study from Preschool to 4thGrade

“…According to the data obtained in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study the factor that best predicts the academic success of children is related to the learning of letters [21]. The knowledge of the alphabet is a feature of literacy and the main objective of preschool teaching and early educative intervention is to facilitate its development [22]. A study in 2005 with 256 preschool children proved that an intervention program increases phonological awareness, because Evaluation Test of Phonological Awareness results indicate a growth of the phonological awareness levels after the post-test.…”