Efficiently building the essential skill of letter sound fluency: A randomized controlled trial of a technology-based...

This study was a randomized controlled trial conducted with 82 kindergarten students who were at or below the 50th percentile in letter sound fluency. Students were randomly assigned to a control group (business as usual) or an intervention group where students engaged in letter sound fluency practice using a cloud-based personalized system of instruction for letter sounds (PSI-LS) in which letter sounds were presented via a modified incremental rehearsal (IR) practice schedule. Students participated in a total of 12 sessions across 3 to 4 weeks. Students in the PSI-LS condition did significantly better on measures of letter sound knowledge (d = 1.06), letter sound fluency (d = 1.25), and nonsense word fluency (d = 1.06) than peers in the control condition at posttest. The potential for technology to make instruction activities such as IR more efficient, effective, and individualized is discussed.