Oregon Research Institute

Alphabet Instruction Details for At-Risk Preschool Children

Investigators are studying the best way to teach preschool children the alphabet, a key predictor of successful reading and spelling development. The study includes children with limited early literacy experience and children who are English learners.

Details

Alphabet knowledge is a well-established predictor of reading and spelling development. In this series of studies Pat Vadasy, Ph.D., and her team are studying the aspects of alphabet instruction that may account for individual differences in alphabet learning: instructional content (whether to teach letter names, letter sounds, or both); underlying cognitive learning processes that influence alphabet learning (paired associate, articulatory, and orthographic learning); and, the contextualized nature of alphabet instruction and how that affects alphabet learning for preschool children, including children with limited early literacy experience and children who are English learners.