Influencing Early Literacy Skills- 1- Running head: Influencing Early Literacy Skills: An Experimental Influencing Early Literacy Skills: An Experimental Study of a Computer-Based Intervention

One of the most important processes that children must master to thrive in the modern world is reading, and children’s reading success depends upon the initial development and acquisition of basic critical skills. The National Reading Panel (2000) identified broad areas for effective reading instruction: Phonemic Awareness (PA), Phonics Instruction, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Text Comprehension. Additionally, the panel identified the use of computer technology to teach reading skills as an area for future research. This paper investigates the efficacy of Learning Letter Sounds (LLS), a commercially available learning to read computer program, on the development of early reading skills in kindergarten-aged school children. Thirty kindergarten-aged children in a private Oklahoma school were randomly assigned to either an Experimental group that worked with the Learning Letter Sounds program or to a Control group that worked with a computer-based mathematical program. All children were exposed to their assigned computer program for 20 minutes, three times a week, for 6-8 weeks, for a total of 24 twenty-minute training sessions. These computer sessions were presented in addition to normal educational activities. To examine progress, children were assessed before and after the intervention by double-blind assessors from the University of Oklahoma using three subtests from the Dynami