Exploring the use of the ARROW literacy intervention for looked after children in a UK local authority

Promoting Foundation Reading Skills With At-Risk Students

“…Once, due to the financial restrictions, it was not possible to include all children in the intervention program. As children in both groups started the school year with null or very low reading skills, it would be expectable to find a progression curve regarding those skills, which could be more or less pronounced according to variables such as language development, family risk of dyslexia, mother’s education, number of books at home, and/or family’s socioeconomic status ( Pennington and Lefly, 2001 ; Bickford-Smith et al, 2005 ; Zalewska-Łunkiewicz et al, 2016 ; Porta and Ramirez, 2019 ; Raspin et al, 2019 ). The outcome expected at the end of the first grade is far more ambitious than performing significantly better than at the onset of the school year though.…”

“…It facilitates the understanding of correspondences between phonemes and the corresponding letters ( Hulme et al, 2012 ). Difficulties with phonemic awareness are more commonly found across students who enter the school from socially disadvantaged backgrounds ( Zalewska-Łunkiewicz et al, 2016 ; Diuk et al, 2019 ), who have experienced difficulties with language development ( Bickford-Smith et al, 2005 ; Porta and Ramirez, 2019 ; Raspin et al, 2019 ), and/or at family risk of dyslexia ( Pennington and Lefly, 2001 ). Research has also shown that training phonemic awareness results in significant gains in reading and spelling performance.…”

“…Interventions with the best results in reading skills are those occurring early, i.e., in kindergarten ( Hatcher et al, 2004 ; Richardson and Lyytinen, 2014 ) or at the beginning of primary school (with 6 or 7-years old) ( Wimmer and Mayringer, 2002 ; Saine et al, 2011 ). If reading disabilities are not addressed early with at-risk students, difficulties tend to generalize to other domains thus jeopardizing future knowledge acquisition ( Raspin et al, 2019 ), exposing students to consecutive experiences of failure, thereby diminishing their motivation to learn ( Lyytinen and Erskine, 2016 ). However, when these difficulties are identified early and lead to a prompt individualized or small group systematic and intensive intervention, the likelihood of reversing failure trajectories is very high ( Lyytinen, 2008 ; Hall and Burns, 2018 ).…”

Reading Acquisition Software for Portuguese: Preliminary Results

“…The development of serious games has a large impact on education, prompting the need for upgraded policy making, curriculum development, and teacher training. Providing teachers and educational technicians with research technology empowers them to take their places as qualified experts and advisers that policymakers need for making informed choices for better education quality [4].…”

“…These difficulties lead to long-term negative consequences, such as behavior problems, depression and other mental health issues [2]. If reading disabilities are not early addressed, difficulties tend to generalize to other domains, exposing students to consecutive experiences of failure, thereby diminishing their motivation to learn [3], jeopardizing future knowledge acquisition [4]. In turn, when these difficulties are identified early and lead to a prompt intervention, the likelihood of reversing failure trajectories is very high [5], [6].…”