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Read Writ (2010) 23:607626
DOI 10.1007/s11145-009-9174-x
Shayne B. Piasta David J. Purpura Richard K. Wagner
Published online: 4 April 2009 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract Preschool-aged children (n = 58) were randomly assigned to receive small group instruction in letter names and/or sounds or numbers (treated control). Alphabet instruction followed one of two approaches currently utilized in early childhood classrooms: combined letter name and sound instruction or letter sound only instruction. Thirty-four 15 minute lessons were provided, with children preand post-tested on alphabet, phonological awareness, letterword identication, emergent reading, and developmental spelling measures. Results suggest benets of combined letter name and sound instruction in promoting childrens letter sound acquisition. Benets did not generalize to other emergent literacy skills.
Keywords Emergent literacy Alphabet knowledge Letter-sound
correspondence Preschool intervention
This study reports results from the dissertation of Shayne B, Piasta, submitted in partial fulllment of the requirements for the Ph.D. at Florida State University. The research was supported by a Predoctoral Interdisciplinary Research Training Grant (R305B04074) from the Institute of Education Sciences. The opinions articulated are ours and do not represent views of the university or funding agency. Gratitude is expressed to Christopher J. Lonigan, Christopher Schatschneider, and Carol McDonald Connor for providing comments on early drafts of this manuscript, Avni Vyas for her daily work within the preschool centers, Caroline Phythian-Sense and Shari Watson for conducting assessments, Liz Wagner and Samyuktha Kashinath for delity coding, and the preschool directors, teachers, parents, and children for welcoming us into their classrooms.
S. B. Piasta (&)
Preschool Language and Literacy Lab, The Ohio State University, 356 Arps Hall, 1945 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43210, USAe-mail: [email protected]
D. J. Purpura R. K. Wagner
Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Fostering alphabet knowledge development:a comparison of two instructional approaches
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Introduction
The acquisition of alphabet knowledge, or knowledge of letter names and corresponding sounds, is an important accomplishment in childrens early literacy development (Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998) and recognized as the strongest predictor of later reading ability (Hammill, 2004; National Research Council, 1998; Scarborough, 1998; Schatschneider, Fletcher, Francis, Carlson, & Foorman, 2004; Share, Jorm, Maclean, & Matthews, 1984). Young children with high levels of letter name knowledge tend...
