Enhancing Reading Skills in 1st Grade Children
Condition: Literacy
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of the present study is to assess a reading intervention for first graders who
      are identified by their teachers as reading below grade level. The intervention addresses
      reading skills through a variety of techniques including games, play, movement exercises,
      music, and breaks to enhance literacy skills and reduce frustration commonly accompanying
      sight word recognition and phonemic decoding.

      Over half of elementary school students in the United States are reading below grade level
      compared to their same age peers. Children with poor reading skills are more likely to
      experience academic and behavioral problems. When students are not reading at grade level by
      4th grade, they are more likely to experience future academic failure, school dropout,
      juvenile delinquency, teenage pregnancy, and under- or unemployment in adulthood. Traditional
      methods of classroom large group instruction require children to sit quietly and concentrate
      on small print for extended periods of time. Many children experience frustration and
      agitation in response to such reading demands.
    

Detailed description: 
      The National Assessment of Educational Progress estimates that only 35% of fourth graders in
      the United States are able to read at or above grade level. Children's future academic
      success is accurately predicted by performance in the first three years of school. A student
      is four times more likely to drop out of high school if he or she is not reading proficiently
      by the end of third grade. High school dropouts are three times more likely to be unemployed
      than college graduates per US Bureau of Labor Statistics in 2018, and those who are employed
      earn an average of 61% less over the course of their lifetimes compared to their
      college-educated peers per US Census Bureau in 2012. Eighty-five percent of juveniles facing
      trial in the court system are functionally illiterate per National Criminal Justice Reference
      Service in 2003, and adolescent girls with low literacy skills are five times more likely to
      become pregnant than teenagers who can read at or above grade level.

      Despite the preponderance of data expounding a literacy crisis in the US, the status quo of
      reading instruction in US elementary schools has not been effective in remediating functional
      illiteracy. In classrooms averaging 21.6 students, teachers are unable to provide the
      individualized instruction that is necessary to meet the learning needs of at-risk students.
      Reading specialists who work with children one-on-one and in small groups employ methods
      similar to those of classroom teachers, requiring children to sit quietly and sustain their
      attention on small print. These demands are difficult for children experiencing challenges
      with self-regulation, and school environments requiring these behaviors for several hours
      each day may inculcate feelings of frustration and failure in the children who most need to
      develop a sense of self-efficacy as readers with full membership in the world of print. In
      this study, twenty-four first graders will be assigned by chance to a reading or no-reading
      group.
    

Intervention name(s): 10-week Reading Program
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Intervention sessions will be carried out during the school day in a private school room. In each session, the investigator will work with the child individually to help him or her read better. Intervention will incorporate word recognition and phonetic decoding of words established as meeting 1st grade essential literacy standards. Learning techniques will involve games, play, movement, music, and breaks (i.e., the child is able to move about and associate words with color, video, and music. Three 5-minute breaks will be integrated into each 1-hour session to allow the child time to rest and process learned material). Intervention will also use each child's personal interests as a context around which sight words will be learned.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Intervention will take place in a New York City (NYC) elementary school. 24 first graders, identified by their teachers as reading below grade level, will be randomized to an intervention or control group. The 12 participants randomized to the intervention group will receive the 10-week reading program, twice weekly in 1-hour sessions. The Co-I and child will work together in individual sessions on sight recognition and phonetic decoding of words established as meeting 1st grade essential literacy standards. Intervention will incorporate word recognition and phonetic decoding within the context of games and play in which the child is able to move about and associate words with color, video, and music. Intervention will also use each child's personal interests as a context around which sight words will be learned. Control group participants will not receive intervention. Both the intervention and control group participants will continue to receive typical classroom reading instruction.
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Reading; 1st grade; Literacy