Improving phonological awareness with Talking Tables in at-risk kindergarten readers.
A cheap, teacher-run 10-week phoneme game pack lifts early reading risk in regular kindergarten rooms.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Hodgins et al. (2021) tested a 10-week add-on called Talking Tables.
Teachers ran small groups inside the regular kindergarten day.
Kids were at risk for reading problems, but had no set diagnosis.
What they found
The Talking Tables group beat the control group on phoneme tests.
Gains showed up in both accuracy and speed after the short run.
How this fits with other research
Van Hanegem et al. (2014) saw only tiny gains when older kids with Down syndrome got phonological training. The new study finds medium gains in younger, at-risk kindergarteners. Age and risk status explain the gap, so the papers do not truly clash.
Madden et al. (2003) first showed kids with Down syndrome can learn phoneme skills if you teach them straight out, but the skills stayed narrow. Hodgins et al. (2021) now shows the same kind of direct PA lessons can lift whole-class kindergarteners when teachers run the show.
Shams et al. (2025) stretched the oral-language model to preschoolers with autism and also saw vocabulary grow. Together the trio says: start early, keep it teacher-led, and match the group you serve.
Why it matters
You can plug Talking Tables into your existing kindergarten block without extra staff. Pick the kids who lag on phoneme tasks, run 15-minute groups three times a week, and track blending or segmenting probes. If scores climb, keep the routine; if not, tweak the pace or group size. The low cost and fast payoff make it a smart first step before bigger reading fixes.
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Join Free →Pick three at-risk kindergarteners, open the lesson template, and run a five-minute phoneme segmenting warm-up during circle time.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND: For young children experiencing phonological awareness (PA) difficulties, the need for early and targeted intervention to prevent reading disability is unequivocal. There are very few studies, however, on the efficacy of PA interventions delivered at school. AIMS: This study examined the impact of an early PA intervention embedded within an oral language program designed for at-risk kindergartners. METHODS: Using a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest design, at-risk readers from four schools received either the 10-week intervention in small groups, three times a week for 30 min as a supplement to the regular classroom curriculum or served as controls not participating in the intervention and receiving the usual classroom instruction. RESULTS: Children in the intervention group demonstrated a greater use of phonological awareness at posttest on overall composites of phonological processing, and on several individual accuracy and fluency measures targeting skills at the phoneme level. CONCLUSIONS: The results add to accumulating evidence on the efficacy and effectiveness of teacher-delivered school-based early literacy interventions.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2021 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2021.103996