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The Effects of a Computerized Taped Intervention on the Accuracy of Letter Identification

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Abstract

Letter names are some of the many preschool accomplishments that are of particular relevance to later academic challenges. However, many children enter school without having fluent letter name knowledge. The current study evaluated the effects of a taped-letter (TL) intervention delivered through PowerPoint on the accuracy of letter identification in three young children using a multiple probe across participants design. The participants were trained to say the letter name when the PowerPoint provided a printed letter on the screen and to echo the computer model of the correct response. Each training was followed by an assessment in which the participant was tested on letter identification accuracy. The TL intervention was successful in increasing letter identification to at least 23 letters for all participants within 8–11 intervention sessions. These results extend and add to the findings of previous studies demonstrating the effectiveness of taped interventions in teaching academic skills and demonstrate that similar taped interventions can be easily developed to teach early academic skills using a computerized platform.

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Correspondence to Jennifer L. Beers.

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The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Approval was obtained from the Institutional Review Board of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology. The procedures used in this study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

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Informed parental consent and participant assent were obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This project was completed in partial fulfillment of an MS degree from The Chicago School of Professional Psychology by the first author. The authors wish to thank Dr. Eric Carlson for his comments on an earlier version of the manuscript.

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Heer, H., Beers, J.L. The Effects of a Computerized Taped Intervention on the Accuracy of Letter Identification. J Behav Educ 32, 835–850 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-022-09476-3

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