Doctorate in Educational Psychology Early Screening for Potential Literacy Difficulties and Intervening in Nursery /Reception

Measures of children’s naming times for several types of item have been consistently shown to correlate positively with literacy performance at an individual level. In this study, the time taken to name a standard array of colours was found to follow a normal distribution of scores even in children as young as 3 years 8 months. Children with high colour naming times measured against a colour-naming device in nursery were considered to be at risk for potential literacy difficulties. Forty-eight children with the highest colour naming times on the naming device were allocated to four matched groups. Interventions were run with each group in line with current research into possible causative factors for literacy difficulties, in particular; phonological awareness, distinctness of speech representations, phonological memory and a control group (who received as much one to one time as the intervention groups but did not follow a specified programme). All four groups were supported for these sessions by staff in nurseries and nursery classes. As the children were screened at a relatively early age (average 3 years 9 months), intervention on the various programmes took place over three terms. At the beginning of the study all children were assessed on: vocabulary, ability, colour naming time, and exposure to print at home. Matching of the intervention groups was done on the basis of these measures. Measures of literacy performance were taken after