None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This study tested potential treatments for Australian children who have severe problems learning to read. Some of poor readers find it hard to read via the letter-sound rules (phonics), some find it hard to read whole words by sight (sight-word reading), and many have both of these problems. In this study, one group of poor readers (N = 36) did 8 weeks of phonics training and then 8 weeks of sight word training; one group did the reverse (N = 36); and one group did phonics and sight word training simultaneously for two 8-week periods (N = 32). Sight word training lead to significant gains in sight word reading measures that were larger than gains made from phonics training; phonics training lead to statistically significant gains in a phonics reading measure that were larger than gains made from sight word training; and both types of training lead to significant gains in general reading that were similar in size. Training phonics before sight words had a slight advantage over the reverse order. These findings demonstrate the reliability of both phonics and sight word training in treating poor readers. This will aid Australia’s efforts to counteract the effects of poor reading in children by revealing how different treatments should be tailored to children with different types of reading impairment.
Interventions
The phonics treatment trained letter recognition, parsing, letter-sound rules, and blending. Sight-word treatment trained children to associate written irregular words (i.e., those that do not follow the letter-sound rules) with the appropriate pronunciations. These skills were trained using software programs. Children trained at home for 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for 8 weeks.
There were three treatment groups. Group 1 did no treatment (8 weeks) followed by phonics treatment (8 weeks
The phonics treatment trained letter recognition, parsing, letter-sound rules, and blending. Sight-word treatment trained children to associate written irregular words (i.e., those that do not follow the letter-sound rules) with the appropriate pronunciations. These skills were trained using software programs. Children trained at home for 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week, for 8 weeks. There were three treatment groups. Group 1 did no treatment (8 weeks) followed by phonics treatment (8 weeks) followed by sight-word treatment (8 weeks). Group 2 did no treatment (8 weeks) followed by sight-word treatment (8 weeks) followed by phonics treatment (8 weeks). Group 3 did no treatment (8 weeks) followed by a mix of phonics and sight-word treatment (8 weeks) followed by the same mix of phonics and sight-word treatment (8 weeks). Trainees rested for one week between 8-week training periods.
Sponsors
Macquarie University
Study design
Allocation
Non-randomised trial
Intervention model
Crossover
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
7 Years to 12 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Children who have (1) English as their first language, (2) no problems with attention, hearing, sight, or behaviour, and (3) poor reading for their age.
Exclusion criteria
Poor attention, poor hearing, poor visual acuity, severe developmental delay
Outcome results
None listed