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Completed

NCT Number: NCT06504264

The Effect of Articulatory Gestures on Early Literacy Skills in 4-year Olds

This study will use an experimental design to explore if articulatory gestures (with letters and phonemic awareness training) enhance early literacy skills more than general mouth awareness training (with letters and phonemic awareness training) or letter/phonemic awareness training alone.

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Key information

Conditions

Early Literacy Articulatory Gestures Behavior Communication Literacy Phonemic Awareness

Age range

48 month–59 month

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Not applicable

Primary location

Montclair State University

Montclair, New Jersey, 07043, United States

About this study

Multisensory reading strategies, which recruit one or more of the five senses, are routinely used in general education classrooms as well as with children who are struggling readers. Despite their wide use in schools, little research exists to substantiate the utilizing these strategies to enhance literacy. One type of multisensory reading strategy, articulatory gestures, is of particular interest to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as they are uniquely positioned to provide speech sound placement cues. Limitations of the few prior studies that exist have prevented the isolation of the articulatory gestures themselves as the main contributor to the gains seen in literacy. This study aims to control for factors such as motivation, engagement, and time on task to explore the specific contribution of articulation strategies during phonemic awareness training on phoneme segmentation, reading of phonemically spelled words, and nonword reading in typically developing four-year old children. Using an experimental design, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) phonemic awareness training with articulatory gestures, 2) phonemic awareness training with general mouth pictures, and 3) phonemic awareness training with no mouth/articulation pictures at all. Interventions will focus on phoneme-letter correspondence and phonemic segmentation using strategies specific to each group and differences between groups will be considered for pre and posttest measures.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: Yes

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Knows 15 letter names
  • Passes hearing screening
  • Passes Fluharty-2 Language Screening
  • Can segment no more than three consonant-vowel (CV), VC, or CVC words into phonemes
  • Not able to read more than one word or nonword used in the posttest.

Exclusion criteria

  • Does not know 15 letter names
  • Fails hearing screening
  • Fails Fluharty-2 Language Screening
  • Can segment more than three consonant-vowel (CV), VC, or CVC words into phonemes
  • Reads more than one word or nonword used in the posttest.

Treatment and study plan

phonemic segmentation

Behavioral

during phonemic segmentation activities, articulatory gestures will be used while teaching letters and their sounds.

Primary outcomes

  1. number of words correctly phonemically segmented from primary investigator created list

    Time frame: immediately after the intervention

    will tell the sounds in 9 words presented orally

Secondary outcomes

  1. number of words read correctly from primary investigator created list

    Time frame: immediately after the intervention

    will read phonemically 6 spelled words

  2. number of nonwords read correctly from primary investigator created list

    Time frame: immediately after the intervention

    will read 7 nonwords

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

Montclair State University

Other

Registry information

Official study title

The Effect of Articulatory Gestures on Word Reading, Non-word Reading, and Phonemic Segmentation in 4-year Olds

Important dates

Study start
2024
Primary completion
2025
Study completion
2025
First posted
Jul 16, 2024
Registry last updated
Sep 25, 2025

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

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