Spanish Literacy Instruction for At-Risk Kindergarten Students

Abstract

Kindergarten students at risk for reading difficulties who received beginning reading instruction in Spanish demonstrated mixed results following supplemental instruction from their classroom teachers when compared to two other groups: typically achieving peers in the same school and at-risk students in a control school. Following the intervention, intervention students demonstrated significant differences from their typically achieving peers on letter naming, letter sounds, initial sound identification, syllable segmentation, syllable blending, and word identification. However, there were no significant differences between the intervention students and the at-risk comparison students on any measure. Limitations and educational implications are discussed.