A multi-sensory tutoring program for students at risk of reading difficulties: Evidence from a randomized field experiment

Abstract

This study examined a literacy program that targeted students most at risk of reading difficulties in kindergarten and first grade of 12 Swedish schools. The program used multi-sensory learning methods that focused on phonological awareness and phonics, and was delivered during 10 weeks over 30–35 sessions by teachers in a one-to-one or one-to-two setting. In total, 161 students aged 6–7 years were randomly assigned to a treatment group or a waiting list control group. The treatment group showed large and statistically significant improvements compared to the control group on the two pre-registered primary outcome measures: a standardized test of decoding (Hedges’ g = 1.07) and a standardized test of letter knowledge (g = 1.03). The improvements were also significantly larger on measures of phonological awareness (g = 0.56) and self-efficacy (g = 0.57), but not on measures of enjoyment and motivation. The program appears cost-effective relative to other tutoring programs.

Keywords:

• Phonological awareness
• phonics
• tutoring
• multi-sensory
• Sweden

Acknowledgements

This study would not have been possible without the help and dedication of teachers and staff at the participating schools and municipalities, and we are very grateful for their efforts. We are also indebted to Åsa Malmberg and Christina Rick for helping us conduct the tests. We thank Mimmi Råback for providing us with background data. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers, Trine Filges, Caroline Hall, Mette Kjaergaard Thomsen, Björn Öckert, and seminar participants at the TrygFonden’s Center for Child Research, the Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy (IFAU), and Copenhagen Education Network Workshop for helpful comments. All errors are our own. IFAU grant 198/2016 is gratefully acknowledged. A previous version of the paper has been published as IFAU Working Paper 2019:7.

Conflicts of interest

The third author (Isaksson) developed the program studied here, which is commercially available for schools. The first two authors (Bøg, Dietrichson) analyzed the data independently. We registered an analysis plan at www.socialscienceregistry.org with registration number AEARCTR-0002750 before the first two authors had examined the data.

Additional information

Funding

Institutet för arbetsmarknads- och utbildningspolitisk utvärdering.