Young children's alphabet learning as a function of instruction and letter difficulty

Despite the importance of alphabet knowledge for learning to read in English, we continue to have a limited understanding of children's alphabet knowledge learning and how to best support such learning. In this pretest-posttest within-subjects experimental study (n = 29), we examined alphabet learning as a function of lessons tailored to individual children's alphabet learning needs and as a function of letter difficulty. Children received instruction on four individually selected target letters and no instruction on four control letters; target and control letters were equated for letter difficulty. Results showed that children were more likely to learn target letters than control letters. Additionally, letter difficulty predicted children's learning of uppercase and lowercase letter names but not their learning of letter sounds. Findings partially substantiate the role of letter difficulty in alphabet learning and support continued research on effective practices for differentiating alphabet instruction to meet individual alphabet learning needs.