Measuring the effectiveness of a phonological awareness teaching program for the kindergarten classroom

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the Cracking the Code (CtC) Program (Fremantle Language Development Centre (FLDC) Outreach Service, 2013) with kindergarten students aged between 3 years and 6 months and 5 years and 6 months. CtC is a teacher implemented program, designed to explicitly target Phonological Awareness (PA) skills and alphabet knowledge over an 18 week period, within a structured intervention regime. A randomised, parallel group design will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and to identify factors which influence a participant’s responsiveness to the program. Four mainstream schools within the South West Perth metropolitan area will be selected to participate in the study. Schools involved in the study will be matched based on the following characteristics; (1) geographical location, (2) socioeconomic status and (3) educational outcomes. Between 100 – 120 kindergarten students aged between 3 years and 6 months and 4 years and 6 months on entry to the programme will be included within the final data set with parental/caregiver consent. The schools will be randomly assigned to either the control or treatment condition. The control group will participate in an alternative program matched for duration and intensity, targeting the areas of semantics and grammar. All participants will be assessed on PA, alphabet knowledge, non word reading and spelling, oral language, and short term memory prior to intervention, and on PA, alphabet knowledge, non-word reading and spelling after intervention. The language programs involve; 1. Six intervention blocks each lasting for 3 weeks (18 weeks in total). The intervention phase runs over Term 2 and Term 3. 2. Then intervention blocks begin at the level of onset and rime and progress towards phonemic awareness activities, following a developmental progression of these skills. An example of the activities in Block 4 are: Onset-Rime (Rhyme Detection): Piggy Banks Onset-Rime Segmentation (Initial Sound): First Sound Treasure Hunt Phoneme Final Sound Identification: Hopscotch Phoneme CVC Blending: Shopping Trolley 3. Activity sessions will be conducted twice per week – so six times over the three week period. 4. Each session will take approximately 40 – 55 minutes. 5. Two to three staff members will be required for the running of each session. These staff members may be teachers, education assistants or school support staff. 6. Support and training will be provided to education staff prior to the commencement of each block. To ensure treatment fidelity, clear guidelines for dosage and implementation, as well as comprehensive training and modelling support, will be provided. The procedures manuals for the language programmes will be used in training to support adherence to the treatment protocol. Teacher questionnaires, recorded use of activities and direct observations of lessons every three weeks, by the primary researcher will also contribute to treatment fidelity.