The Results of a Scripted Linguistic Phonics Reading Curriculum Implemented by Kindergarten Teachers.

A large number of students experience reading failure each year. In the present study, an experimental curriculum was developed and evaluated to examine its effectiveness in teaching kindergarten students the mechanics of learning to read. One hundred and one kindergarten students participated. The curriculum group consisted of 58 students (27 females with a mean age of 68.4 months and 31 males with a mean age of 67.4 months) and the comparison group consisted of 43 students (20 females with a mean age of 66.7 months and 23 males with a mean age of 67.1 months) who were also receiving the typical instruction in word recognition and phonics. Teachers administered the two curricula rather than experimenters across the academic year. Each group was assessed on phonological processing and skills related to reading before and after the academic year. The results indicated that the students who were presented the curriculum significantly outperformed the comparison group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]