Synthetic phonics in kindergarten classrooms: Effects of size of phonological unit, type of phonics unit, and amount and timing of phonics instruction on literacy outcome

Two studies evaluated the effectiveness of a particular commercially-available synthetic phonics program, Jolly Phonics, in developing phonemic awareness and alphabetic-coding skills at the small phonological unit (SPU) level. The main study involved 5--6-year-olds who received Jolly Phonics instruction in senior kindergarten. A subsidiary study involved 4--5-year-olds who received Jolly Phonics instruction in junior kindergarten. Children in the experimental groups in both studies were given brief sessions of Jolly Phonics instruction in their regular kindergarten classrooms 3--5 times a week for 6--7 months of the school year. Children in the main study had varying amounts of Jolly Phonics instruction: a 2-years group (n = 71) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 2 school years---in junior and in senior kindergarten; a 1-year group (n = 64) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 1 school year in senior kindergarten, but not in junior kindergarten; and a 0-years group (n = 82) received no systematic phonics instruction in either junior or senior kindergarten. In the subsidiary study, the 1-year group (n = 65) was taught with Jolly Phonics during 1 school year---in junior kindergarten. The 0-years group (n = 3) received no systematic phonics instruction in junior kindergarten. The focus of the main study was to investigate the effect of SPU knowledge (1) on small and large (LPU) phonological unit literacy tasks and (2) on visual (i.e., using letter cues) blending and deletion tasks vs. auditory equivalents of the same tasks. (3) The main study also examined the effects of amount of phonics instruction (e.g., 2 years vs. 1 year vs. 0 years). (4) The subsidiary study examined the issue of timing of phonics instruction in order to determine the effectiveness of introducing Jolly Phonics in junior vs. senior kindergarten. Results indicated that: (1) SPU knowledge was effective on both SPU and LPU literacy tasks; (2) children performed better on auditory-only blending tasks and visual-only deletion tasks; (3) the 2-years group outperformed the 1-year and 0-years groups on both SPU and LPU literacy tasks; and the 1-year group outperformed the 0-years group on most tasks; and (4) junior kindergarten children benefited from Jolly Phonics instruction.