This intervention study was conducted to document conditions under which a computer based literacy game (GraphoGame TM ) could enhance literacy skills of first grade students in an African city. The participants were first grade students from Government schools (N = 573). These students were randomly sampled into control (N = 314) and various intervention groups (N = 259). GraphoGame TM was administered on cellphones to students at their schools under supervision. Each student in the study was assessed using a battery of locally developed cognitive tests that measured emergent literacy skills (Orthography test), decoding competence (Spelling test), vocabulary (Picture Vocabulary Test-PVT) and arithmetic (Zambia Achievement Test-ZAT). There was a positive effect of the game for the Spelling test-which closely targeted the skill GraphoGame TM is designed to promote. The most effective intervention combined exposure of both the teachers and the students to the game. Initial letter knowledge was a good predictor of final letter knowledge on GraphoGame TM .

GraphoGame (GG) is originally a technology-based intervention method for supporting children with reading difficulties. It is now known that children who face problems in reading acquisition have difficulties in learning to differentiate and manipulate speech sounds and consequently, in connecting these sounds to corresponding letters. GG was developed to provide intensive training in matching speech sounds and larger units of speech to their written counterparts. GG has been shown to benefit children with reading difficulties and the game is now available for all Finnish school children for literacy support. Presently millions of children in Africa fail to learn to read despite years of primary school education. As many African languages have transparent writing systems similar in structure to Finnish, it was hypothesized that GG-based training of letter-sound correspondences could also be effective in supporting children’s learning in African countries. In this article we will describe how GG has been developed from a Finnish dyslexia prevention game to an intervention method that can be used not only to improve children’s reading performance but also to raise teachers’ and parents’ awareness of the development of reading skill and effective reading instruction methods. We will also provide an overview of the GG activities in Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia, and the potential to promote education for all with a combination of scientific research and mobile learning.

This study investigated the comparative efficacy of a phonics based reading program and a language experience approach based literacy program to develop reading skills among Zambian early childhood school learners. The learners (n=1,986; Grade 2 level, (females =50.1%) took either the phonics based reading program (n=1,593) or the alternative language experience approach based program (n=393). They were all assessed for reading skills utilizing the Early Grade Reading Assessment test (EGRA) in four languages (Cinyanja, Icibemba, Kiikaonde and Silozi). Results suggest that learners in phonics based literacy program were significantly better in letter-sound knowledge in all the four languages and in reading skills (non-word reading, oral passage reading and reading comprehension) only in Icibemba and Silozi compared to those who took the alternative program. Results reveal that children in PLP had significantly better performance in most reading skills than in PRP, but the effect sizes were small or medium. The high floor effect in all directly reading-related measures is an indication that most children in Zambia have not acquired even the basic reading skill of the transparently written language they are familiar with in neither PRP nor PLP and thus are in urgent need of better instruction. The implementation of the phonics approach is not effective enough. Instruction of the sounds of letters requires special attention where digital training tools (such as GraphoGame) may provide the most effective help to both teachers and children.

GraphoGame Teacher Training Service is a mobile-based solution for providing teachers with scientifically validated pedagogical training in literacy instruction. In many African countries teachers currently have insufficient knowledge to teach literacy in local languages and learning materials are scarce, especially for children with learning difficulties. As part of the GraphoWorld network, CAPOLSA/University of Zambia is developing new mobile-based method for providing in-service training for teachers in literacy instruction and assisting children with learning difficulties. GraphoGame Teacher Training Service was piloted in October 2014 in rural Zambia. An orientative workshop was given to 24 teachers who learned about literacy instruction methodology and then organized a GraphoGame intervention to randomly selected 2 nd grade children either at home or in a school environment. Parents of the children in the home intervention group were also encouraged to play GraphoGame. GraphoGame learning analytics shows that both the children and their parents improved their word reading skills. Children who played GraphoGame performed better than their non-playing classmates in the EGRA letter-sound knowledge test at the end of the intervention. Teachers, parents and children were all motivated to use ICT-based literacy learning tools and their literacy skills levels show high demand for support services for literacy instruction.Literacy Framework which gives detailed guidance on how literacy teaching should be implemented in primary schools based on a program called Primary Literacy Program (PLP) that uses a phonics-based approach for teaching reading. While these new advancements will be included in the college of education curriculum for student teachers, there are still thousands of teachers across Zambia who have had few chances of participating in literacy instruction trainings With the mobile technology, it is now possible to disseminate information on science-based literacy instruction methods in a quick and cost-effective way. Mobile technology allows teachers to self-study materials, which decreases the time spent in workshop trainings.GraphoGame has been developed for providing learning support for children with reading difficulties [3]. For this purpose its effectiveness has been studied in four African countries (Zambia [4], Namibia [5], Kenya [6] and Tanzania [7]). Our previous research focus in Zambia has been the decoding skill [4] and how to help teachers [8] and parents [9] to support children in the very early stages of learning to read . In Kenya, GraphoGame is available in Kikuyu and Kiswahili and children's letter-sound knowledge, word recognition and spelling improved after a minimum exposure of 3 hours [6]. Kiswahili GraphoGameversion is also being studied in Tanzania at Sebastian Kolowa University with promising results [7]. In Namibia GraphoGame was translated into Afrikaans and programmed to follow the literacy curriculum in grades 1 and 2. In the first validation study in 2013, 83 first grade l...