Evaluation of a parent-administered computer-assisted tutoring program targeting letter sound knowledge in preschool-aged children

Abstract

Knowledge of letters sounds has been identified as a primary objective of preschool instruction and intervention. Despite this designation, large disparities exist in the number of letter sounds children know at school entry. Enhancing caregivers' ability to teach their preschool-aged children letter sounds may represent an effective practice for reducing this variability and ensuring that more children are prepared to experience early school success. This study used a non-concurrent multiple-baseline-across participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of caregivers (N=3) delivering a computer-aided tutoring program (Tutoring Buddy) targeting letter sound knowledge to their preschool-aged children. Using visual analyses and effect size estimates derived from Percentage of All Non-Overlapping Data (PAND), results were consistent across all three children, as six weeks of intervention yielded large effect sizes for letter sound knowledge (LSK), letter sound fluency (LSF), and nonsense word fluency (NWF). All three caregivers rated the intervention as highly usable and were able to administer it with high levels of fidelity. Taken together, Tutoring Buddy appears to be an effective, simple, and usable tool that caregivers can use to enhance critical early literacy skills.