Fiona J. Duff|Charles Hulme|Katy Grainger|S. J. Duthie J. C. R. Hardwick|Jeremy N. V. Miles|Margaret J. Snowling
Reading and language intervention for children at risk of dyslexia: a randomised controlled trial
University of Oxford|University College London|University of York|University of York|RAND Corporation|University of Oxford
intervention studies children risk dyslexia typically delivered preschool show shortterm effects letter knowledge phoneme awareness little transfer literacythis randomised controlled trial evaluated effectiveness reading language intervention 6yearold children identified research criteria risk dyslexia n 56 schoolidentified peers n 89 experimental group received two 9week blocks daily intervention delivered trained teaching assistants control group received 9 weeks typical classroom instruction followed 9 weeks interventionfollowing mixed effects regression models path analyses smalltomoderate effects shown letter knowledge phoneme awareness taught vocabulary however fragile short lived reliable effect primary outcome wordlevel readingthis new intervention theoretically motivated based previous successful interventions yet failed show reliable effects language literacy measures following rigorous evaluation suggest intervention may short yield improvements oral language literacy instruction beyond classroom may weakened training effects argue reporting null results makes important contribution terms raising standards trial reporting educational practice