NCT Number: NCT07017010
The goal of the proposed study is to directly and rigorously address current scientific controversy about phonological awareness intervention content and timing for prekindergarten and kindergarten children. Using an experimental design, we will compare the relative impact of phonological sensitivity + phonemic awareness intervention versus phonemic awareness intervention on children's phonemic awareness and later reading and spelling abilities. We expect that both types of intervention will lead to impacts beyond business-as-usual instruction but do not have directional hypotheses as to which type of intervention will be most effective. Also, we will determine the relative efficacy of intervening in prekindergarten versus kindergarten, examine child characteristics that might moderate effects, and explore whether a transition point can be identified as to when phonemic awareness intervention may be most effective. Ultimately, our findings will help optimize early phonological awareness instruction.
Interested in participating?
Request Info4 year–9 year
All sexes
Interventional
Not applicable
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, United States
Healthy volunteers accepted: No
Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.
Inclusion criteria
Exclusion criteria
All 12 weeks of lessons will exclusively focus on instruction at the phoneme level (i.e., the individual sounds in words), with activities addressing the blending of sounds to form short words. Other activities may include counting the number of sounds heard in a word, matching letter tiles to the sounds heard in the word, and separating short words into their component sounds.
The first six weeks of intervention will include a focus on being able to manipulate (separate and blend) parts of words larger than the individual sounds. This will include manipulating compound word components, syllables, and initial sounds and rhyming components of words. Activities may include matching pictures of words, assembling/disassembling puzzle pieces that represent words, and sorting pictures (words) by their first or ending sounds. The second six weeks of intervention will focus on phonemic awareness, as described for the PA intervention condition, and be the same as what the children in the DPA intervention condition experience.
The six weeks of intervention will focus on phonemic awareness, as described for the PA intervention condition, and be the same as the second six weeks of lessons that the children in the PSPA intervention condition experience.
Time frame: screening/pretest (within first 3 months of school year prior to intervention), midtest (within 2 months following the first 6 weeks of intervention and before starting the second 6 weeks of intervention), posttest (within 3 months of intervention end)
The TOPEL phonological awareness subtest includes 27 items with a focus on blending and deleting various sound components within words (e.g., compound word components, syllables, individual sounds). Some items do, and others do not include pictorial supports where children can respond by pointing to their answer.
Time frame: screening/pretest (within first 3 mos, prior to intervention), midtest (within 2 mos after first 6 weeks of intervention, posttest (within 3 mos of intervention end), followup 1 (~15-18 mos after enrollment), followup 2 (PK only, ~27-30 mos after enroll)
The CTOPP2 includes three core subtests that we will administer. Elision is a 34- item subtest to assess how participants can say a word then say what is left after leaving out designated sounds. Blending Words is a 33-item subtest to see how a participant would combine sounds by listening to a series of audio recorded separate sounds then putting together the sounds to make a full word. Sound matching is a 26-item subtest to see how a participant can match sounds. The examiner says a target word then says three other words while pointing to drawings showing the words. For the first 13 items, participants have to point to pictures that match the first sound in the target word and for the following 13 items they match the end sound.
Time frame: posttest (within 3 months of intervention end), followup 1 (~15-18 mos after enrollment), followup 2 (PK only, ~27-30 mos after enroll)
We will administer three subtests of the widely used standardized measure the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement IV (WJ Letter Word ID, WJ Word Attack, and WJ Spelling). Letter Word ID requires children to correctly label individual letters and then individual words of increasing difficulty (maximum 75, with stopping rules after successive errors). Word Attack requires children to correctly pronounce nonwords of increasing length and difficulty (maximum 32, with stopping rules after successive errors). Spelling requires children to write the conventional spelling of words dictated to them by a recording (maximum 30, with stopping rules after successive errors).
Time frame: posttest (within 3 months of intervention end), followup 1 (~15-18 mos after enrollment), followup 2 (PK only, ~27-30 mos after enroll)
The Test of Word Reading Efficiency 2 is a standardized and widely used measure of reading fluency. In both subtests children are given 45 seconds in which to read as many of a list of presented words as possible. In list one, the words are real words. In list two the words are pronounceable nonsense words. Both lists become increasingly difficult.
Time frame: posttest (within 3 months of intervention end), followup 1 (~15-18 mos after enrollment), followup 2 (PK only, ~27-30 mos after enroll)
The Word Spelling assessment includes two parts: asking children to spell 5 dictated real words and 5 dictated nonsense words, with each part scored separately.
Contact information is provided by the study sponsor or research team.
Caitlin Florek
CONTACT
Shayne B Piasta, PhD
CONTACT
Ohio State University
Other
Acronym: Project OPAL
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