The effects of rime- and phoneme-based teaching delivered by Learning Support Assistants

This paper evaluates three word-level teaching programmes delivered by trained Learning Support Assistants (LSAs) for Year 1 children ʹat riskʹ of reading difficulties. Rime-based, phoneme-based, and ʹmixedʹ (rime and phoneme-based) interventions were contrasted with controls receiving only the National Literacy Strategy. Phonological onset-rime and phoneme manipulation, spelling, and word and non-word reading were measured before and after the nine-week intervention. High rime neighbourhood (HRn) non-words (e.g. ʹdatʹ- with many real word rime neighbours) and low rime neighbourhood (LRn) non-words (e.g. ʹtavʹ with few real word neighbours) were used to evaluate onset-rime- or grapheme-phoneme-based decoding strategies. Results showed greater phonological onset-rime skills, letter-sound knowledge and non-word reading skills in all LSA-taught intervention groups. There was no difference between the HRn and LRn non-words. The only reliable difference between the intervention groups was an advantage in phoneme blending for the rime-taught group. It was concluded that LSAs can enhance literacy development for 6-year-old poor readers. There appears to be no simple association between rime- or phoneme-based teaching intervention and changes in the size of unit used by children following interventions.