Cued Articulation: Effects on Early Reading Skills and Attitudes towards Learning

This thesis considers the impact of Cued Articulation, a multisensory phonics teaching tool, on children's phonics knowledge, word-reading ability and attitudes towards learning.

Multisensory phonics approaches are commonly used to develop children's initial reading skills.

Through multi-model stimulation, children are encouraged to learn letter-sound correspondence and apply this knowledge to word-reading.

The systematic literature review examines the effect of multisensory phonics instruction on children's word-recognition skills.

Ten studies were critiqued.

Findings lend support to the effectiveness of multisensory phonics methods, particularly when used to support children who are experiencing difficulties with reading.

The empirical paper examines the effectiveness of Cued Articulation as a method to enhance whole-class phonics teaching. Participants were 154 children, aged four to five years, attending a mainstream setting in the South-East of England.

A quasi-experimental between-groups design was used, which included a comparison group, who received an alternative phonics programme, called Jolly Phonics.

The study measured the effect of the intervention on children's phonics knowledge, word-reading ability and attitudes towards learning.

A 2 x 2 analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed.

Following a twelve-week intervention period, both groups displayed gains in word-reading ability, with no significant differences between groups.

There were no significant differences between groups on measures relating to phonics knowledge and attitudes towards learning.

Possible reasons for the unexpected findings are considered.

Based on this research, it is not possible to conclude that children may benefit more from a Cued Articulation teaching approach than an alternative multisensory phonics programme.

Implications for research and practice are discussed.