Analyzing Alphabet Knowledge Acquisition in Young Children

Alphabet knowledge is one essential skill for the successful development of early literacy skills and is predictive of later reading success. Extant literature has examined both the assessment of early alphabet knowledge and how to teach alphabet knowledge to the youngest learners. One facet to further consider in both alphabet knowledge assessment and instruction is individual letter characteristics and how these characteristics may impact the efficiency in which letter names and sounds are mastered. Data was collected from two alphabet knowledge tasks (i.e., one measuring letter name knowledge and the other measuring letter sound knowledge). Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) models were evaluated in a sample of 23,970 four-year-old pre-kindergarten students. Change in relative difficulty of letter name and sound items was also examined across three time points (i.e., beginning of year, middle of year, end of year). Results were consistent with previous studies; letters can be situated along a developmental sequence, with some being easier and others harder to learn. Additionally, results revealed how individual item difficulty changed over the course of an academic year, providing additional insight into alphabet knowledge acquisition in four-year olds. Given that individual letter characteristics may impact the efficiency with which letter name and sound knowledge is mastered, teachers might benefit from planning to spend more time teaching and having students practice retrieving knowledge of letter names and sounds for letters that have been shown to be more difficult for students to learn.