Performance of children at risk for reading difficulties submitted to an intervention program

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Neuroscience of Reading

Background:

• Reading disabilities affect a significant portion of children, impacting academic success.
• Early identification and intervention are crucial for mitigating the long-term effects of reading difficulties.
• Phonological decoding skills are foundational for reading acquisition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effectiveness of a phonological decoding intervention program for children at risk of reading disabilities.
• To determine if the intervention improves specific pre-reading and writing skills.

Main Methods:

• An experimental design compared 10 children receiving the intervention with 10 control children at risk for reading difficulties.
• The intervention consisted of 24 sessions (group and individual) focusing on phonological decoding, conducted twice weekly.
• Statistical analysis included Student's t-test and Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test.

Main Results:

• Children in the intervention group demonstrated statistically significant improvements in letter naming and phoneme-grapheme relationships.
• The program enhanced phonological awareness and phonological working memory (for non-words and digits).
• Intervention participants showed significant gains in alphabet recognition, writing dictation, and reading of words and pseudowords.

Conclusions:

• The phonological decoding intervention program is applicable and effective for children at risk for reading disabilities.
• The program successfully improved prerequisite skills essential for reading and writing acquisition.
• This intervention offers a viable approach to support early literacy development in at-risk populations.