The Letter-Naming Benchmarks, Growth Profiles, and the Efficacy of an Interactive Learning App on Uppercase Letter-Name Learning for Preschool Children

Abstract

While mobile devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous (even in low-income families in the United States) and are being used for educational purposes, it is unclear how these technological tools may benefit letter learning (a foundational precursor to early literacy achievement) in preschool children. To contribute clarity, this study tested the efficacy of an app intervention on letter learning. Participants consisted of 16 children (13 Hispanics and three African Americans) from two classrooms in a U.S. preschool serving children from low-income backgrounds. Using an experimental research design, the research team randomly assigned children to either the intervention condition (involving the use of an uppercase letter-matching game app on an iPad for 10 minutes daily in the classroom for five weeks) or the control condition. It was revealed that only a few children in either condition knew 10 or more uppercase letters on the pretest but most did meet this 10-letter benchmark and some even achieved or continued to achieve the 18-letter benchmark on the posttest, demonstrating varied growth in letter-name knowledge (LNK). Accordingly, the children’s LNK evidenced the three profiles: (1) the “High Initial,” (2) the “High Growth,” and (3) the “Low Growth.” Importantly, the paired sample t-test showed that the mean differences in gain of uppercase letters between the pretest and the posttest among children within the intervention condition was statistically significant, suggesting that the letter-learning app seemed effective for learning more uppercase letters. However, the two-sample t-test did not show significant mean differences in gain of uppercase letters between children in the two conditions.