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The importance of letter sound knowledge (LSK) as a precursor to later literacy skills has been well-documented. Since English language learners (ELLs), or students who first acquired a language other than English, continue to underperform in reading compared to their English-speaking peers, they are particularly at-risk for reading and academic difficulties. The current study examines the utility and acceptability of teaching letter sounds to four ELL preschoolers through a software-based incremental rehearsal tool (Tutoring Buddy). All students demonstrated increases in LSK, with large effect sizes derived through percentage of all nonoverlapping data analyses. Increases were also noted in the students' generalization of letter sounds to measures of letter sound fluency and nonsense word fluency, signified by small to large effect sizes. Large effect sizes generated for real word fluency measures indicated that all students were able to apply LSK to decoding real, consonant-vowel-consonant words. All students rated Tutoring Buddy as helpful for their letter sound learning, and varied in how enjoyable they found the intervention to be. Overall, the results support the use of Tutoring Buddy as an effective and acceptable method for teaching letter sounds to young ELLs. Implications for school-based professionals working with ELL and future directions for research are discussed.

Activity schedules, guided compliance, and differential reinforcement are often used to reduce transition-related problem behavior in children with autism. One potential way to increase the effectiveness of these procedures when transitioning children from preferred to nonpreferred activities is to alter the motivating operations for noncompliance. In Experiment 1, we used an alternating treatments design to compare the effects of activity schedules plus guided compliance alone and when combined with four brief interruptions, each followed by attention and immediate resumption in the preferred activity. Two preschool-aged children with autism participated. Although the combined procedure was more effective, the extent to which it temporarily reduced the reinforcing value of the pretransition activity was unclear. Experiment 2 addressed this limitation by directly examining the value-altering effect of brief interruptions. Two different preschool-aged children participated. Using a reversal design, response-restriction preference assessments were conducted with and without brief interruptions. Results indicated that both children's preferred activity was engaged in less when interrupted, but engagement levels immediately resumed when interruptions were withdrawn. Possible functions of brief interruptions followed by attention and resumption in a preferred activity are discussed.