Literacy is a fundamental to all areas of learning. Early reading experiences prior to elementary school and kindergarten years are critical factors for later reading success. This study evaluated the effect Direct Instruction® reading procedures vs. Scholastic Early Childhood Program® reading procedures on the production of letter names, letter sounds, CV and CVC blends by preschool-aged students in a Head Start program. Results showed the intervention group improved in all areas, while the control group improved only in letter naming and letter sounds. This study discusses reading as a behavioral cusp as well as limitations, and recommendations for future research.

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Numerous studies have evaluated and confirmed many benefits of errorless learning and fluency-based procedures. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the benefits of combining an errorless learning procedure, stimulus shaping, and fluency-based procedures to teach see/say letter sound discriminations to three preschool children. Participants were taught 6 letter sounds using a hear/point stimulus shaping procedure followed by a see/say fluency-based procedure. A second letter set was taught using only the fluency-based procedure. Results showed that combining the procedures reduced the amount of teaching time by up to 40% and the percent of errors by up to 50%. This preliminary evidence shows exceptional promise in application of this combination of procedures to teach letter sounds to preschool children.

I detta arbete beskrivs ett projekt som syftade till att skapa bokstavssånger som ökar elevernas kunskap om bokstavsljuden och bidrar till språkutveckling samt fonologisk medvetenhet, vilket i sin tur kan stödja läs- och skrivinlärningen. Sångerna ska också vara roliga, meningsfulla och inbjuda till delaktighet. Projektet startades under mitt tredje år på Grundlärarprogrammet vid Uppsala universitet, då jag under 7 veckor hade min tredje och sista verksamhetsförlagda utbildning (VFU) i en förskoleklass i Uppsala. Projektet fortsatte även resten av våren som en del av min utbildning, då jag läste kursen Självständigt arbete 1 på 15 hp och valde att tillverka ett pedagogiskt material. Bokstavssångerna riktar sig mot elever och lärare i förskoleklass och årskurs 1, och är tänkt som ett komplement till övrig språkundervisning (exempelvis enligt Bornholmsmodellen) samt övrig musikundervisning. I arbetet argumenterar jag varför musik kan (och bör) användas i språkundervisningen, bland annat genom en kortare översikt av forskning på området musik och språk. Arbetet innehåller även noter och länk till inspelningarna, en analys av vad sångerna kan tillföra befintligt material, en beskrivning av produktutvecklingsprocessen samt en diskussion kring arbetet och resulterande sånger och lärdomar. / The aim of the project described in this report was to create letter songs that increase students' knowledge of letter sounds and contributes to their development of language and phonological awareness, which in turn can support students who are learning to read and write. The songs should be fun to sing, meaningful and invite the students to participate. The project was started during my third year at the Primary School Teacher Education Programme at Uppsala University, and during my last and 7 weeks long teaching internship in a preschool class in Uppsala. The project continued for the rest of the semester as a part of my first (of two) Independent Project when I chose to create a pedagogical product.The letter songs are aimed towards students and teachers in preschool class and grade 1, and is meant to complement other language instruction (for example, in accordance with the Bornholm model) and other music instruction. In the report I argue that music can (and should) be used in language instruction, and the argument is among other things supported by an overview of studies and research about music and language. The report also contains sheet music and a link to recordings, an analysis of what these songs contributes to existing songs, an description of the product development process and a discussion of the project and resulting songs and lessons learned.