Implementation and evaluation of an online reading programme (Headsprout Early Reading; HER) in mainstream and special schools across North Wales. Providing training and implementation support for teachers and teaching assistants to effectively deliver the programme (including staff from over 60 schools to date). Encouraging outcomes from pilot work in both mainstream schools (Tyler et al., 2015a) and special schools (Tyler et al., 2015b; Tyler et al., under review). Current project across 22 schools, with 300 children enrolled in HER and over 50 teachers/teaching assistants receiving training.
Reading is an essential skill, and being unable to read affects many aspects of life, from basic academic progress to the ability to live independently and participate in modern society (Marchand-Martella, Slocum & Martella, 2004). However, reading is a complex skill that many children struggle to acquire (Lyon, 1998), and literacy rates across the UK reflect this (Literacy: State of the Nation, 2011). In 2012, it was reported that 40% of pupils entering secondary school in Wales had a reading age of more than 6 months below their chronological age (Estyn, 2012). This indicates that many children are not acquiring fluent reading skills during primary school.
Our work implementing and evaluating Headsprout
Over recent years, the research team has been working with schools across North Wales to help improve children’s reading skills through an innovative computer-based reading programme called ‘Headsprout’. As outlined above, there is an increasing evidence-base for Headsprout reading programmes, however it has not been evaluated in the UK prior to work undertaken by this team.
Using HER in mainstream schools
We have been piloting HER and our teacher-support/supervision model, in implementation projects with over 1000 children across over 50 mainstream primary schools in North Wales. Our current funded research in this area (The North Wales Online Reading Trial Study: NorthWORTS) includes 22 schools, over 300 children receiving this high quality supplementary instruction, and over 50 school staff receiving training in effective implementation of HER as well as more generalisable instructional strategies for reading and other skill areas. The research aims of this project are to evaluate the effects of implementation support on implementation fidelity and reading outcomes. All schools will receive detailed feedback on the findings of the study in order to enhance their delivery of the programme. An expected collateral effect of this project will be to increase the capacity to deliver high quality, effective reading instruction in primary schools across North Wales.
Using HER in special schools
Although HER is designed for typically developing children, one of our research interests has been exploring its use with children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Many children with ID struggle to learn to read, however, there is a dearth of information and guidelines regarding effective approaches for teaching reading skills to children with ID.
Given increasing evidence indicating the positive effects of the HER with typically developing children, one of our tracks of research in this area has investigated how Headsprout might be of benefit to children with ID. Results of our feasibility and pilot work indicate that the programme is accessible for many children with ID with minimal additional input. Further, a recent pilot RCT we conducted across three special schools indicated significant effects on reading skills for children enrolled in the intervention, suggesting further research in this area is a worthwhile pursuit.
Through this feasibility and pilot work, many children with ID have had the opportunity to access high quality instruction and to experience reading success: five special schools are now using HER, and to date, over 70 children in these special schools have had access to the programme, with more children enrolled each year.
Although expectations have improved over recent years, the potential of many children with ID is still underestimated, particularly in relation to literacy capabilities. A number of participants in special schools enrolled in HER have made progress previously thought impossible due to failure of previous attempts at teaching them to read, and this picture has now extended to many other children who have since accessed the programme beyond this research as part of the standard practice in the schools where we conducted the research.
Additionally, many assistants and teachers have benefited from their involvement delivering the programme; through observing this high quality instruction and learning to support the development of reading fluency, many of those involved in this research report to have learned a considerable amount regarding reading instruction that they have been able to use with other pupils and even their own children. This has had a hugely positive impact on the expectations of special schools regarding the development of reading skills.
The current evidence base for supplementary reading instruction indicates that explicit, systematic, and intensive instruction in the early years for children considered to be ‘at-risk’ of reading difficulties can have significant and sustained effects on reading skills (Coyne et al., 2004).
Evaluations of computer-assisted reading programmes have demonstrated improved word-level reading skills (WWC, 2007), and the research investigating such programmes has generally indicated a positive effect on reading skills (National Reading Panel, 2000).
Headsprout Early Reading (HER) is an online, supplementary systematic phonics programme. HER includes instruction in phonemic awareness, print awareness, phonics, sounding out, segmenting and blending, reading with comprehension, and explicitly incorporates the five components of reading proposed by the USs National Reading Panel (Layng, Twyman & Stikeleather, 2003).
There is a growing evidence-base for HER (e.g., Huffstetter et al., 2010; Twyman, Layng & Layng, 2011), however it has not been evaluated in the UK prior to work undertaken by this team. Through collaborations with local schools, we have been bringing this innovative technology to children across north Wales to investigate its effects.
Tyler, E. J., Hughes, J. C., Beverley, M., & Hastings, R. P. Improving early reading skills for beginning readers using an online programme as supplementary instruction. European Journal of Psychology of Education (published online, January 2015)
Tyler, E. J., Hughes, J. C., Williams, B. M., Wilson, M. M., Beverley, M., & Hastings, R. P. Teaching early reading skills to children with Intellectual Disabilities using computer-delivered instruction: A pilot study. Journal of International Special Needs Education, 18, 1, 1-11
Tyler, E. J., Hughes, C. J., & Hastings, R. P. Evaluating an online reading programme with children with Intellectual Disabilities: Feasibility and pilot research. Journal of Applied Research in Intellectual Disabilities (under review)
5. Sources to corroborate the impact (indicative maximum of 10 references)
Dr Richard Watkins, GwE (Regional school effectiveness service).
Email:
[email protected]
Mrs Donna Rees-Roberts (Headteacher, Ysgol Hafod Lon & Ysgol Pendalar).
Email:
[email protected]
Mrs Yvonne Moseley (Deputy Headteacher, Ysgol Hafod Lon).
Email:
[email protected]
Mrs Colette Owen (Headteacher, Blessed William Davies School, Llandudno).
Email:
[email protected]
Included as references that cite the work:
Coyne, M. D., Kame'enui, E. J., Simmons, D. C., & Harn, B. A. (2004). Beginning Reading Intervention as Inoculation or Insulin: First-Grade Reading Performance of Strong Responders to Kindergarten Intervention. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 37(2), 90-104.
Layng, T. V. J., Twyman, J. S., & Stikeleather, G. (2003). Headsprout Early Reading: Reliably teaching children to read. Behavioral Technology Today, 3, 7-20
National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Washington, DC: National Institute for child health and development.
Twyman, J. S., Layng, T. V .J., Layng, Z. R. (2011). The likelihood of instructionally
beneficial, trivial, or negative results for kindergarten and first grade learners who complete at
least half of Headsprout Early Reading, Behavioral technology today, 6, 1-19
What Works Clearinghouse. (2007). Beginning Reading. Institute for Education Sciences;
Washington, D.C.