Differential Effects of a Word Reading Game on Early Word Reading Efficiency
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2018-07-01
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en
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The present study aimed to investigate the general and differential effects of a tablet-based word reading game (Reading Turbo) on word reading efficiency of beginning readers. The word reading game included elements of repeated reading, semantics, feedback, and gamification, and was implemented in first grades of eight regular Dutch primary schools (N = 250 Dutch first graders). The participating schools were pseudo-randomly allocated to an intervention group (n = 132), in which first graders played the word reading game for 15 minutes on each school day during a five-week period - on top of the usual reading curriculum, and a control group (n = 118) which continued with the usual reading curriculum during this period. Word reading efficiency was assessed prior to and directly after the intervention period. To examine differential effects, reading precursor measures (i.e., phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid naming, verbal working memory, and vocabulary) were assessed in children in the intervention group prior to the intervention period, and were subsequently related to children’s responsiveness to the word reading game. Results indicated that the word reading game significantly enhanced first graders’ reading efficiency on untrained consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and monosyllabic cluster words. Phonological awareness, letter knowledge, rapid naming, and verbal working memory were indirectly related to post-intervention word reading efficiency (via initial word reading efficiency), but none of the reading precursors directly affected responsiveness to the word reading game. It can thus be concluded that the word reading game was effective across beginning readers with different (pre-)reading capacities.
Keywords: word reading efficiency, beginning readers, responsiveness to reading intervention, reading games, transfer
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen