Effects of RTI on letter naming and spelling among kindergarteners at risk for reading failure

Abstract

The response-to-intervention model provides early intervention to struggling children and helps them to increases their academic achievement, as it provides immediate intervention to children who are likely to be at risk of academic failure. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of response-to-intervention model on developing acquisition of letter naming knowledge and spelling knowledge among kindergarteners at risk for reading failure. Thirty-six kindergarten children (Mean age= 5.03, SD=0.705; number of female children=12, and number of male children=24) identified as at risk for reading failure participated in this study .Children were administered a pre-reading skills test (developed by Mourad Ali, 2014 to screen for children who are at risk for reading failure). Children who had low achievement scores on the test (at least 1.5standard deviations [SD] below the population mean) were included. Letter Naming Knowledge Test and Spelling Knowledge Test were employed. In order to analyze the data from the pre- and post-test, the author used two-way ANOVA analysis and t-test. Two-way ANOVA analysis and t-test results revealed the effectiveness of response-to-intervention model on developing acquisition of letter naming knowledge and spelling knowledge among kindergarteners at risk for reading failure.