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Evaluation of a computer‐based reading intervention in infant and junior schools
Author(s) -
Nicolson Roderick,
Fawcett Angela,
Nicolson Margaret
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9817.00114
Subject(s) - reading (process) , psychology , literacy , intervention (counseling) , replication (statistics) , developmental psychology , mathematics education , pedagogy , medicine , virology , psychiatry , political science , law
Recent studies (Fawcett et al, 1999; Nicolson et al, 1999) have demonstrated that 6 and 8 year old children found to be at risk of reading failure can be provided with very cost‐effective support using traditional teaching methods. Nonetheless, a significant minority of children failed to make sufficient progress. The present studies undertook a replication of these studies, using the RITA computer‐based literacy support system. The RITA system assists, rather than replaces, the teacher in providing support tailored to each child’s profile of reading attainments. The results indicated that the RITA support was both educationally effective and economically effective, with comparable cost effectiveness to the traditional approach when used with infant school children (6 year olds), and somewhat greater cost effectiveness when used with junior school children (8 year olds). All groups of children reacted very positively to the RITA lessons. It is suggested that computer‐assisted reading support can be effective in supporting children at risk of reading failure, even at junior school level.