The Effects of a Computerized Intervention on Kindergarten Students' Reading Skills
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Date
2023-06
Authors
Cameron, Melinda
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Publisher
Mount Saint Vincent University
Abstract
The current study examined the effectiveness of the Ooka Island program, a computer assisted instructional program designed to help develop reading skills for children ages 4-7. Ooka Island allows students to learn and practice multiple reading skills, using an algorithm to help students acquire phonemic awareness, word reading skills, and reading comprehension. Forty-nine Kindergarten students used the Ooka Island program for most of a school year in addition to receiving their typical classroom instruction. Thirty-nine students served as a control group who only received their typical classroom instruction and did not use the computer program. There were better reading outcomes for students in the group who used the Ooka Island program on most reading measures, a reflection of those reading skills being directly taught and practiced in the program. Students in the group who used the Ooka Island program scored higher on a post-test phonological awareness blending measure than students in the control group, but there were no group differences on a post-test phonological awareness segmenting measure. Students in the group who used the Ooka Island program outperformed those in the control group on measures of pseudoword reading, word reading and word reading efficiency, controlling for beginning word reading accuracy in the analyses. Finally, students who used the Ooka Island program scored higher on a reading comprehension measure than students in the control group, with initial word reading skills as a covariate in the analysis. These outcomes suggest that Ooka Island can be an effective program to boost early reading skills.