Evaluating the Effects of Instructional Prompts and Strategic Incremental Rehearsal on the Letter Identification Mastery of Two Typically Developing Kindergarteners

Two regular kindergarteners who could not name all letters took part. The team tried three prompt styles: pointing to the letter, saying the letter name, or tracing the letter with a finger. Each child got all three prompts in a rotation until one style clearly won.

After the best prompt was found, the teacher added Strategic Incremental Rehearsal (SIR). SIR is quick flash-card work: nine known letters plus one new letter, repeated until the new one is learned.

The best prompt was different for each child. One child learned fastest with the spoken name prompt. The other learned fastest with the tracing prompt.

When SIR was added, both kids jumped from about half the letters correct to almost every letter correct. The mix of the right prompt plus SIR moved mastery fast.

Kupzyk et al. (2011) first showed that SIR beats regular flash cards for sight words in older kids. Hathaway et al. (2021) keeps the same SIR core but starts prompt selection and tests it on kindergarteners learning letters, not words.

Lewis et al. (2025) came later and swapped flash cards for a single-page word list while keeping SIR. All three studies show SIR works; the newer papers just make it easier or add prompt choice.

Leaf et al. (2016) compared prompt types for kids with autism and also found that prompt choice matters. Hathaway et al. (2021) repeats that idea in regular kindergarteners, showing the principle holds across populations.

You do not need to guess which prompt works. Run a quick rotation for each learner, pick the winner, then layer SIR for a second boost. The whole package takes a few sessions and fits inside regular reading centers.