Review of Recent Research and Recommendations for Teaching the Alphabet in Early Childhood Settings

Learning letter names and sounds is a tradition in most early childhood classrooms. Unfortunately, many strategies and activities used for teaching the alphabet in childcare, preschool, and kindergarten classrooms are not based on research. Some approaches teachers use are popular and pervasive and have become standard fare. Examples include singing the alphabet song (without looking at the letters) and using a “letter of the week” approach where teachers emphasize one letter per week to teach to the children. Such approaches are not based on research and waste valuable time that could be spent on more meaningful and evidence-based practices (Lusche, 2003; Meier, 2010)