Grapho-Phonemic Enrichment Strengthens Keyword Analogy Instruction for Struggling Young Readers

Abstract

First, second, and third graders (N = 102) who had completed from 1 to 3 years of literacy instruction in other schools and had experienced failure entered a private school for struggling readers and received instruction in either of 2 types of systematic phonics programs over a 4-year period. One group received a keyword analogy method (KEY) that taught them to decode words by analogy to 120 keywords. The other group received KEY enriched with instruction in grapho-phonemic analysis (KEY-PLUS). Results showed that students receiving KEY-PLUS read and spelled words significantly better during the first 2 years of instruction than students receiving the KEY method. The same differences remained evident, although not significant, during Years 3 and 4. The programs did not differentially improve reading comprehension. Some effects of IQ were found. Results are consistent with developmental theories indicating the foundational importance of grapho-phonemic analysis for retaining written words in memory to facilitate word reading and spelling.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 48 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.