Children with Additional Needs
Carmel Faulkner, commissioned by Birmingham LEA.
Aim
The aim of this study is to evaluate whether the “Signs for Success” programme impacts children’s literacy development in a calculable way. The focus is on the reading and spelling of high frequency words.
Method
For the purpose of this three-week study we will choose two groups of three children aged eight and nine years, who have been identified as having special educational needs.
Group A will receive fifteen minutes additional support daily through standard SEN provision together with signing and fingerspelling intervention.
Group B will receive fifteen minutes additional support daily through standard SEN provision without signing and fingerspelling intervention. Both groups have previously been exposed to the Signs for Success programme in Reception class. In the ensuing years, such exposure has not been consistent.
Key variables under scrutiny will be children’s ability to read and spell ten high frequency words with and without the Signs for Success support programme.
Before the study begins, children will be assessed as to whether they can read and spell the ten high frequency words. They will be assessed again at the end of the 3-week programme as to whether they can read and spell the same ten high frequency words. The test will be conducted on a one-to-one basis with both groups by a practitioner familiar to the children. Both groups of children will be reminded at the beginning of the assessment to use signing and fingerspelling if they wish but no other support will be provided.
For the READING assessment, individual children will be asked to read the high frequency words presented to them in random order. The SPELLING assessment will be conducted in a manner familiar to the children i.e., words will be called out in random order for children to spell i.e. write the words.
Aggregated scores
- Sight word scores for Group A on initial assessment =15
- Sight word scores for Group A after assessment =29
- Sight word scores for Group B on initial assessment =23
- Sight word scores for Group B after assessment =28
Group A performed less well in the initial assessment. However, following the “Signs for Success” programme intervention, they achieved similar or better results in the final assessment than the comparison Group B children.
Both Figure 3 and Figure 4 charts demonstrate that the Group A children who participated in the “Signs for Success” programme made significantly more progress than those who did not participate in the “Signs for Success” programme.
Aggregated Scores
- Spelling scores for Group A on initial assessment =7
- Spelling scores for Group A after assessment =21
- Spelling scores for Group B on initial assessment =14
- Spelling scores for Group B after assessment =21
Conclusion
The findings show there is a strong correlation between the introduction of the “Signs for Success” programme and children’s progress in reading and spelling high frequency words. The children in Group A who participated in the “Signs for Success” programme made significantly more progress during a short period of time than the comparison Group B children.
The most startling finding was that the Group A children who participated in the “Signs for Success” programme performed less well in the initial assessment but achieved similar or better results in the final assessment than the comparison Group B children.
