Premium
A randomised efficacy study of Web‐based synthetic and analytic programmes among disadvantaged urban Kindergarten children
Author(s) -
Comaskey Erin M.,
Savage Robert S.,
Abrami Philip
Publication year - 2009
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/j.1467-9817.2008.01383.x
Subject(s) - phonics , psychology , disadvantaged , literacy , reading (process) , phonological awareness , phonology , psychological intervention , phonemic awareness , articulation (sociology) , developmental psychology , intervention (counseling) , emergent literacy , primary education , mathematics education , pedagogy , linguistics , philosophy , psychiatry , politics , political science , law
This study explores whether two computer‐based literacy interventions – a ‘synthetic phonics’ and an ‘analytic phonics’ approach produce qualitatively distinct effects on the early phonological abilities and reading skills of disadvantaged urban Kindergarten (Reception) children. Participants ( n =53) were assigned by random allocation to one of the two interventions. Each intervention was generally delivered three times per week for 13 weeks as part of a reading centre approach in Kindergarten classrooms with small groups of children. In the synthetic programme children showed, as predicted, significant ( p <.05) improvement in CV and VC word blending and the articulation of final consonants. The children in the analytic phonics programme showed, as predicted, significant ( p <.05) improvements in articulating shared rimes in words. These results suggest that synthetic and analytic programmes have qualitatively different effects on children's phonological development. These phonological differences are not however immediately reflected in any qualitative differences in the way children undertook word reading or nonword decoding.