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Positive effects of the Letterland curriculum on kindergarteners' word reading skills and engagement behaviors: A comparison of two programs.

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Title: Positive effects of the Letterland curriculum on kindergarteners' word reading skills and engagement behaviors: A comparison of two programs.
Authors: Roberts, Theresa A., Smolkowski, Keith
Source: Journal of Educational Research. 2025, Vol. 118 Issue 5, p486-499. 14p.
Subjects: Kindergarten, Literacy, Beginning reading, Reading ability testing, Phonological awareness
Abstract: Learning to read words is a major educational goal for children. This quasi-experimental study compared two kindergarten programs on the early word reading skills and engagement during literacy instruction of 258 kindergarten children. Six matched schools were assigned to the Letterland program or a structured literacy program. Children received 30–45 min of daily instruction in phonemic awareness, letter names and sounds, and word decoding. Regular classroom teachers implemented the instruction. Word reading instruction differed primarily in the use of characters whose character image contained letter forms while plain letters with a separate keyword were used in the structured literacy program. Children in both groups made significant gains on beginning reading skills. Letterland children made greater gains on letter sound fluency, with educationally meaningful differences on phonemic segmentation fluency and word decoding fluency. Letterland participants' engagement during instruction was rated higher by teachers than was structured literacy program participants'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
Database: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection
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  Data: Positive effects of the Letterland curriculum on kindergarteners' word reading skills and engagement behaviors: A comparison of two programs.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Roberts%2C+Theresa+A%2E%22">Roberts, Theresa A.</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Smolkowski%2C+Keith%22">Smolkowski, Keith</searchLink>
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Journal+of+Educational+Research%22">Journal of Educational Research</searchLink>. 2025, Vol. 118 Issue 5, p486-499. 14p.
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Kindergarten%22">Kindergarten</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Literacy%22">Literacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Beginning+reading%22">Beginning reading</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Reading+ability+testing%22">Reading ability testing</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Phonological+awareness%22">Phonological awareness</searchLink>
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: Learning to read words is a major educational goal for children. This quasi-experimental study compared two kindergarten programs on the early word reading skills and engagement during literacy instruction of 258 kindergarten children. Six matched schools were assigned to the Letterland program or a structured literacy program. Children received 30–45 min of daily instruction in phonemic awareness, letter names and sounds, and word decoding. Regular classroom teachers implemented the instruction. Word reading instruction differed primarily in the use of characters whose character image contained letter forms while plain letters with a separate keyword were used in the structured literacy program. Children in both groups made significant gains on beginning reading skills. Letterland children made greater gains on letter sound fluency, with educationally meaningful differences on phonemic segmentation fluency and word decoding fluency. Letterland participants' engagement during instruction was rated higher by teachers than was structured literacy program participants'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
– Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright
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  Group: Ab
  Data: <i>Copyright of Journal of Educational Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)
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      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1080/00220671.2025.2496313
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      – Code: eng
        Text: English
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        PageCount: 14
        StartPage: 486
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Kindergarten
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Literacy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Beginning reading
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Reading ability testing
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Phonological awareness
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: Positive effects of the Letterland curriculum on kindergarteners' word reading skills and engagement behaviors: A comparison of two programs.
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            NameFull: Roberts, Theresa A.
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            NameFull: Smolkowski, Keith
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              Text: 2025
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