Classroom Research Readiness Skills & Phonemic Awareness

The Essential Skills Software was used with one particular student during the 2005-2006 school year.  This child was a female, age 3, severely developmentally delayed.  The software was a great tool to track her progress throughout the year.  This child, I will call her Jane, made many extraordinary gains during the year with the Readiness Skills and Phonemic Awareness programs.

When given the task on the software, Jane was unable to complete any of them without direct assistance.  She was 0% successful on an independent level with all areas.  She was allowed to work with the software 1 x per week for 15 minutes. We started with colors, shapes and concepts such as on/off, beside/ above etc.  Month one Dorthea’s independent success rate was 25%.  We increased her exposure to the software to 20 minutes one time per week.  Months 2 and 3 she gained with her independent success rate to approximately 40% on concepts such as colors, shapes and positions. 

We then worked with concepts of big – little, day- night etc.  By the end of the year, Dorthea’s independent success rate was 85-90%.  It was not appropriate to work on recognizing sounds with her due to a physical impairment.  However, I did let her do some of those activities but did not track her progress.
The Essential Skills program was extremely beneficial for my student and would definitely recommend the program. 

Teresa Peterson (preschool)
Lemmon Elementary