TEACHING ALPHABETIC KNOWLEDGE SKILLS TO PRESCHOOLERS WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT AND TYPICALLY DEVELOPING LANGUAGE

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TEACHING ALPHABETIC KNOWLEDGE SKILLS TO
PRESCHOOLERS WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT
AND TYPICALLY DEVELOPING LANGUAGE

• Addie Lafferty, Shelley Gray, M. Jeanne Wilcox
• Department of Speech Hearing Science
• Infant Child Research Programs
• Arizona State University
• Tempe, Arizona
• Contact addie.lafferty_at_asu.edu

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PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

• Explore emergent literacy skills in the area of
  print awareness, specifically in alphabetic
  knowledge
• Determine if alphabetic knowledge could be taught
  to preschoolers using an intensive intervention

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WHY IS ALPHABETIC KNOWLEDGE IMPORTANT?

• Alphabetic knowledge refers to a childs
  understanding of individual letter names and
  letter sounds
• At school entry, these skills are one of the
  single best predictors of later reading
  achievement
• Children with SLI are at risk for delays in
  developing early literacy skills and are at high
  risk for later reading difficulties
• Research thus far has been predictive in nature
• Virtually no data has been published on the
  training of these skills in children with SLI,
  particularly in preschool aged children

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PARTICIPANTS

• 2 children with SLI 2 with TLD (typical language
  development)
• 2 Hispanic 2 White
• Spoke English as primary language
• Recruited from university preschool program
• All began preschool in Fall of 2002 and attended
  school 2-3 days per week

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DESIGN PROCEDURE

• Multiple baseline across subjects
• Children participated in baseline of target
  skills for 3 sessions before treatment
• First pair of children (1 SLI 1 TD) received 3
  sessions of treatment and demonstrated emerging
  learning criteria of 30 before next pair began
  treatment
• Emerging learning criteria was average of 30 on
  all four skills in 2 of 3 sessions
• Treatment provided individually 3 days per week
  for 30 minutes per session
• Children pulled out of class for treatment
• Mastery criterion was 60 for all four target
  skills.
• New letter was not introduced until child
  achieved 60 criterion as measured during the
  learning assessment at the end of each session

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TARGET SKILLS

• Recognition of letter names
• (Point to the letter B.)
• Production of letter names
• (What is the name of that letter?)
• Recognition of letter sounds
• (Point to the one that says /b/.)
• Production of letter sounds
• (What sound does that letter make?)

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SELECTION OF LETTERS FOR TREATMENT

• Letter name recognition production task
  assessed which uppercase letters each child knew
• Each child could name or recognize at least 2
  letters during this task, and performance varied
  from 2 to 18 letters
• Based on childs performance, 5 letters were
  selected for treatment
• All letters in childs first and last name and
  all vowels were excluded from treatment

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SEQUENCE OF TEACHING TASKS

• 1. Model
• This is the letter B. It says /b/.
• 2. Elicited Imitation
• Say B. Say /b/.
• 3. Feedback
• Thats right, this is the letter B. It says
  /b/.

• 4. Recognition Production Probe
• B D G H M
• Find the letter B.
• 5. Letter Name Sound Learning Assessment
• B P J K L R Z
• Find the letter B. What sound does that letter
  make?

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PARTICIPANTS

• AJ 4 year 4 month old male with SLI
• CJ 4 year old female with SLI

• DW 3 year 7 month old male with TD
• EW 4 year 8 month old male with TD

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LETTER NAME RECOGNITION BY CHILD
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LETTER NAME PRODUCTION BY CHILD
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LETTER SOUND RECOGNITION BY CHILD
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LETTER SOUND PRODUCTION BY CHILD
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SUMMARY OF RESULTS BY CHILD
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INTERESTING FINDINGS

• For 3 of 4 children, intervention was successful
  at teaching letter names sounds
• Each child learned at different rate and showed
  different patterns of acquisition for four target
  skills
• More stability was seen in letter names than
  letter sounds
• For 3 children who demonstrated learning, higher
  accuracy was noted in letter name recognition
  production
• All 4 children recognized produced names of
  more untreated letters at post-test
• Teacher and parent report suggested participation
  in intervention increased children's interest in
  learning letter names at home and school

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

• The authors would like to thank the children and
  parents who participated in this study.
• This study was funded through U.S. Department of
  Education Grant H325D000004.