Effects of a brief but intensive remedial computer intervention in a sub-sample of kindergartners with early literacy delays

Abstract

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. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was used to experimentally test whether priming for attending to the sound-symbol relationship in the proper name can reduce the risk for developing reading problems in the first two grades of primary education. A Web-based computer program with more intensive practice than could be offered by teachers affords activities that prompt young children to pay attention to print as an object of investigation. The study focused on a sub-sample of 110 five-year-old Dutch children from 15 schools seriously delayed in code-related knowledge. Outcomes support the need for early remedial computer programs, and demonstrate that, without a brief but intensive treatment, more children from the at-risk group lack the capacity to benefit from beginning reading instruction in the early grades. With an early intervention in kindergarten, children with code-related skills delays gained about half a standard deviation on standardized tests at the end of grade 2.

Supporting executive functions during children's preliteracy learning with the computer

“…Moreover, positive relations were found between the time that children spent on the computer games and their progress in phonological and letter skills. Another example is a study by Van Der Kooy-Hofland, Bus, and Roskos (2012), who also tested a kindergarten computer program aimed at phonological skills. They showed that children low in preliteracy skills progressed stronger in phonological skills, but not in letter knowledge, compared to a control group.…”

Genetic differential susceptibility in literacy-delayed children: A randomized controlled trial on emergent literacy in kindergarten

“…Living Letters promotes understanding of the alphabetic principle, the notion that letters in print relate to sounds in spoken words. The program offers a framework that anchors instruction and practice in a personally motivating context of activities using children's own proper name (van der Kooy-Hofland, Bus, & Roskos, 2012). This approach is based on a series of studies showing that most children can name the initial letter of the own proper name earlier than other letters (Levin, Both-de Vries, Aram, & Bus, 2005) and that the sound of this letter is the first one that children can identify in spoken words and use correctly in spelling (Both-de Vries & Bus, 2008Bus, , 2010.…”

A systematic literature review of the organisational arrangements of primary school‐based reading interventions for struggling readers

“…Ten of the 16 studies deployed individuals who were specially recruited and trained (three of which were 1:1 computer‐based interventions overseen by a trainer/s). Recruited individuals varied considerably and included masters students (Van der Kooy‐Hofland, Bus, & Roskos, ), older adult volunteers (Fives et al, ; Fives, ) and higher‐grade peers, student teachers and volunteers (Regtvoort, Zijlstra, & Leij, ). Four of the 16 interventions were delivered by school staff or TAs.…”