Improving early phoneme skills with a computer program: Differential effects of regulatory skills

Research findingsThe study focused on 90 five-year-olds from fifteen Dutch schools. The children scored among the 30% lowest on literacy tests. Half were randomly assigned to a phonological skills program on the computer, the other half to a book program. Both programs consisted of 15 ten-minute sessions. During the phonological skills program children's mouse behavior was registered every tenth of a second. Intelligence, phoneme skills, and regulatory skills were tested. Children scoring average on regulatory skills benefited from teacher-free encounters with the phonological skills program, children scoring low or high did not. Typically, the lowest-scoring children showed more meaningless mouse activity and more random clicking.Practice or policyComputer programs can be used to stimulate early phoneme skills of poorly performing kindergarten children, but not for all children. Children with poor regulatory skills did not benefit from the intervention program.