Venera Bekteshi, Munjireen Sifat, Darla E Kendzor
Reaching the unheard: overcoming challenges in health research with hard-to-reach populations
International journal for equity in health
around 5 english speakers significant problem learning read words poor word readers often trained use lettersound rules improve reading skills training commonly called phonics well 100 studies administered form phonics training poor word readers however surprisingly systematic reviews metaanalyses studies wellknown review done national reading panel ehri 2001 12 years ago needs updating recent review suggate 2010 focused solely children include unpublished studies primary aim review measure effect phonics training literacy skills englishspeaking children adolescents adults whose reading least one standard deviation sd one year one grade expected level despite reported problems could explain impaired ability learn read secondary objective explore impact various factors length training training group size might moderate effect phonics training poor word reading skills searched following databases july 2012 central 2012 issue 6 medline 1948 june week 3 2012 embase 1980 2012 week 26 dare 2013 issue 6 eric 1966 current psycinfo 1806 current cinahl 1938 current science citation index 1970 29 june 2012 social science citation index 1970 29 june 2012 conference proceedings citation index science 1990 29 june 2012 conference proceedings citation index social science humanities 1990 29 june 2012 zetoc index thesesuk ireland clinicaltrialsgov ictrp metaregister controlled trials proquest dissertations theses dart europe etheses portal australasian digital theses program education research theses electronic theses online system networked digital library theses dissertations theses canada portal wwwdissertationcom wwwthesisabstractscom also contacted experts examined reference lists published studies included studies use randomisation quasirandomisation minimisation allocate participants either phonics intervention group phonics alone phonics phoneme awareness training phonics irregular word reading training control group training alternative training maths participants englishspeaking children adolescents adults whose word reading level expected age known reason adequate attention known physical neurological psychological problems two review authors independently selected studies assessed risk bias extracted data found 11 studies met criteria review involved 736 participants measured effect phonics training eight outcomes amount evidence outcome varied considerably ranging 10 studies word reading accuracy one study nonword reading fluency effect sizes outcomes word reading accuracy standardised mean difference smd 047 95 confidence interval ci 006 088 10 studies nonword reading accuracy smd 076 95 ci 025 127 eight studies word reading fluency smd 051 95 ci 114 013 two studies reading comprehension smd 014 95 ci 046 074 three studies spelling smd 036 95 ci 027 100 two studies lettersound knowledge smd 035 95 ci 004 065 three studies phonological output smd 038 95 004 080 four studies one result negative direction nonword reading fluency smd 038 95 ci 055 132 one study though statistically significantwe five subgroup analyses two outcomes sufficient data word reading accuracy nonword reading accuracy efficacy phonics training moderated significantly training type phonics alone versus phonics phoneme awareness versus phonics irregular word training training intensity less two hours per week versus least two hours per week training duration less three months versus least three months training group size oneonone versus small group training training administrator human administration versus computer administration phonics training appears effective improving reading skills specifically statistically significant effects found nonword reading accuracy large effect word reading accuracy moderate effect lettersound knowledge smalltomoderate effect several outcomes small moderate effect sizes reach statistical significance may meaningful word reading fluency spelling phonological output reading comprehension effect nonword reading fluency measured one study negative direction statistically significantfuture studies phonics training need improve reporting procedures used random sequence generation allocation concealment blinding participants personnel outcome assessment