The Effect of Articulatory Gestures on Early Literacy Skills in 4-year Olds

The Effect of Articulatory Gestures on Word Reading, Non-word Reading, and Phonemic Segmentation in 4-year Olds

This study will use an experimental design to explore if articulatory gestures (with letters and phonemic awareness training) enhance early literacy skills more than general mouth awareness training (with letters and phonemic awareness training) or letter/phonemic awareness training alone.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Early Literacy; Articulatory Gestures; Phonemic Awareness
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: phonemic segmentation

Detailed Description

Multisensory reading strategies, which recruit one or more of the five senses, are routinely used in general education classrooms as well as with children who are struggling readers. Despite their wide use in schools, little research exists to substantiate the utilizing these strategies to enhance literacy. One type of multisensory reading strategy, articulatory gestures, is of particular interest to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as they are uniquely positioned to provide speech sound placement cues. Limitations of the few prior studies that exist have prevented the isolation of the articulatory gestures themselves as the main contributor to the gains seen in literacy. This study aims to control for factors such as motivation, engagement, and time on task to explore the specific contribution of articulation strategies during phonemic awareness training on phoneme segmentation, reading of phonemically spelled words, and nonword reading in typically developing four-year old children. Using an experimental design, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) phonemic awareness training with articulatory gestures, 2) phonemic awareness training with general mouth pictures, and 3) phonemic awareness training with no mouth/articulation pictures at all. Interventions will focus on phoneme-letter correspondence and phonemic segmentation using strategies specific to each group and differences between groups will be considered for pre and posttest measures.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 9
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • Montclair, New Jersey, United States, 07043
      • Montclair State University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Knows 15 letter names
• Passes hearing screening
• Passes Fluharty-2 Language Screening
• Can segment no more than three consonant-vowel (CV), VC, or CVC words into phonemes
• Not able to read more than one word or nonword used in the posttest.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Does not know 15 letter names
• Fails hearing screening
• Fails Fluharty-2 Language Screening
• Can segment more than three consonant-vowel (CV), VC, or CVC words into phonemes
• Reads more than one word or nonword used in the posttest.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

3

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: LPA: Letters-phonemes-articulatory gestures; This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters, sounds (phonemes) while simultaneously learning the articulation placements of the letters/sounds.	Behavioral: phonemic segmentation; during phonemic segmentation activities, articulatory gestures will be used while teaching letters and their sounds.
Experimental: LPM: Letters-phonemes-general mouth awareness; This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters, sounds (phonemes) while simultaneously learning about the mouth in general.	Behavioral: phonemic segmentation; during phonemic segmentation activities, articulatory gestures will be used while teaching letters and their sounds.
Experimental: LP: Letters-phonemes; This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters and sounds (phonemes) only.	Behavioral: phonemic segmentation; during phonemic segmentation activities, articulatory gestures will be used while teaching letters and their sounds.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
number of words correctly phonemically segmented from primary investigator created list	will tell the sounds in 9 words presented orally	immediately after the intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
number of words read correctly from primary investigator created list	will read phonemically 6 spelled words	immediately after the intervention
number of nonwords read correctly from primary investigator created list	will read 7 nonwords	immediately after the intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Montclair State University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Robyn Becker, Montclair State University

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): September 1, 2024
• Primary Completion (Actual): June 30, 2025
• Study Completion (Actual): June 30, 2025

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 3, 2024
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 10, 2024
• First Posted (Actual): July 16, 2024

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimated): September 25, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 22, 2025
• Last Verified: September 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavior; Communication; Literacy
• Other Study ID Numbers: IRB-FY23-24-3843

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No