early reading

Foundational literacy is central to participation and subsequent learning, yet the instructional routes through which beginning readers encounter print are not equally accessible to all learners. In Tanzania, renewed attention to systematic phonics and early-grade reading has increased the relevance of decodable texts: texts designed to give learners opportunities to apply previously taught grapheme–phoneme correspondences. Their instructional value, however, cannot be assessed only in terms of the linguistic structure of the text. Classroom activities, teacher directions, response requirements, assessment procedures, and available formats can either widen or restrict access. This scoping review maps literature and policy- and curriculum-related evidence concerning decodable or phonics-oriented early reading in Tanzanian primary education and examines the extent to which the evidence engages with accessibility, learner variability, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The review follows PRISMA-ScR and considers literature published between 2014 and 2026. The synthesis indicates a plausible pedagogical alignment between controlled text and the development of decoding, while also revealing a major gap in directly tested evidence on inclusive adaptations of decodable materials in Tanzania. Across the mapped literature, accessibility is more often treated as an implementation concern than as a design principle embedded in reading materials from the outset. The review therefore advances the concept of inclusive decodable-text pedagogy, in which systematic phonics is retained while unnecessary sensory, motor, speech, and communication barriers are reduced through multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement. Implications are developed for curriculum design, teacher education, classroom practice, formative assessment, and future research. The central conclusion is that decodability and accessibility should be treated as complementary properties: a text may be linguistically decodable yet still be instructionally inaccessible if participation depends on a single route that is unrelated to the intended literacy skill.

This study examined how executive functions and cognitive-linguistic skills relate to online lexical processing during sentence reading as a function of word frequency, word length, and concreteness in 171 first- and second-grade children. Executive functions (interference, verbal working memory, and fluency) and linguistic abilities (vocabulary, Rapid Automatized Naming, and phonological awareness) were assessed and linked to two oculomotor indices of word processing, namely First Fixation Duration (FFD) and Total Fixation Duration (TFD), computed for six lexical areas of interest, using descriptive analyses and regression models. Children processed high-frequency words more efficiently than low-frequency words in both FFD and TFD. Early efficiency was associated with fluency and phonological awareness (PA), whereas later efficiency was linked to interference control. Although long words descriptively elicited longer fixations, neither age nor cognitive and linguistic skills significantly predicted differences in FFD or TFD, suggesting that word length was not a reliable predictor of lexical processing efficiency in this task. No consistent advantage was found for concrete over abstract words. Abstract words imposed greater demands during the initial stages of processing (FFD), but these differences diminished in TFD and were not explained by cognitive or linguistic skills. Taken together, these findings provide preliminary evidence that lexical processing efficiency in emergent readers may depend more strongly on word familiarity and on cognitive and linguistic skills than on word length or concreteness, highlighting the interaction between stimulus properties and individual competencies in early reading. However, the findings should be interpreted with caution, as they are task-specific and based on limited item sampling, with only one item representing each lexical category.

The “My First Pages” project was launched by a local authority in Braga, northern Portugal, with the initial goal of fostering early contact with books and children’s literature among children aged 0 to 10, encouraging parental involvement in promoting family reading habits. Implemented through voluntary family registration, and supported by a range of public and private partners (including hospitals, health centres, libraries, and post offices) books are distributed periodically to participating children. This paper presents the initiative as a distributive public policy and critically examines its evaluation process, conducted by education researchers from the University of Minho in close collaboration with the project coordinator. Employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, the evaluation draws on data from an interview with the project lead, as well as socio-cultural profiling of participating families and their reading practices, obtained through a questionnaire completed during the registration phase.

This study examined the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical approaches and the Kindergarten learners’ reading performance in selected schools in the Division of Cagayan de Oro. It assessed five approaches: context support, ICT integration, language experience, phonemic awareness, and the whole-word approach. It also evaluated learners’ performance in comprehension, phonics, and vocabulary. Using a descriptive-correlational research design, the study involved 115 Kindergarten teachers and 230 learners. Data were gathered through a modified questionnaire and standardized test, then analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient. The findings revealed that teachers demonstrated a very high level of pedagogical approaches, with the whole-word approach rated highest and language experience lowest. Meanwhile, learners achieved satisfactory reading performance, with comprehension as their strongest area and vocabulary as their weakest. However, no significant relationship was found between teachers’ pedagogical approaches and learners’ reading performance. The study concluded that teachers were well-equipped to facilitate reading instruction through various strategies. It recommended providing more opportunities for learners to connect reading and writing activities with their personal experiences, interests, and real-life situations. Teachers were also encouraged to explore alternative instructional practices that address learners’ specific reading needs and improve their overall reading performance.

Background Against the backdrop of digital empowerment, generative artificial intelligence has been widely applied in school-age children’s reading education, and digital reading has become one of the primary types of environmental exposure for school-age children. However, school-age children face challenges such as insufficient age-appropriate content and uncontrollable physical and mental strain. There is an urgent demand for a public health intervention model that balances reading-related health benefits, prevents and controls digital exposure risks, avoids physical and mental health impairments, and adapts to school-age children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Methods A retrospective control study design was used in this study. A total of 100 cases of school-age children aged 6–12 were collected from the standardized intervention archive of our institution from September 2025 to December 2025. According to the intervention plan actually accepted in the archive records, they were divided into the collaborative intervention group and the AI-only reading group with 50 cases in each group. In the AI-only reading group, the recorded intervention is purely generative AI independent reading intervention (college students are only responsible for equipment operation and maintenance, and do not participate in reading guidance and emotional intervention), while in the collaborative intervention group, the recorded intervention is the structured auxiliary collaborative intervention of the whole process of generative AI voice multi-round interactive reading combined with standardized training for college students. The intervention period is 12 weeks, three times a week, and each time is 20–25 min. Retrospective analysis of longitudinal data at baseline, 6 weeks of intervention, 12 weeks of follow-up and 4 weeks of follow-up, with the comprehensive score of early reading as the only preset main outcome index, repeated measurement analysis of variance, independent sample t -test and chi-square test were used to analyze the inter-group and time effects, Cohen’s d was used to evaluate the effect, and the test level was α = 0.05. Results Retrospective archive data shows that, after intervention, the collaborative intervention group achieved significantly higher composite early reading scores, phonological awareness, vocabulary comprehension accuracy, reading attention duration and reading interest scores than the AI-only reading group ( p < 0.05). The main effects of group, time and the group-time interaction were all highly statistically significant ( p < 0.01), with an effect size of Cohen’s d = 0.50 representing a moderate intervention effect. The collaborative intervention group also showed significantly higher intervention adherence rate, AI interaction completion rate, reading task completion rate and frequency of active participation than the AI-only reading group ( p < 0.05). In terms of digital health-related outcomes, the collaborative intervention group had significantly lower incidence of adverse psychological states, incidence of prodromal signs of visual fatigue and digital eye strain symptoms, and study dropout rate ( p < 0.05). Among the digital health-related safety indicators, the incidence of negative emotions, visual fatigue and research dropout rate were significantly lower than those of the AI-only reading group ( p < 0.05). The archived records showed that the whole screen duration was strictly in compliance, and there was no privacy leakage and serious adverse events. The 10% lost visit rate was controllable, and the complete rate of informed consent and the qualified rate of implementation were all 100%, and there was no privacy leakage and serious adverse events. Conclusion The generative AI interaction mode paired with college student auxiliary support is associated with sustained improvement school-age children’s core early reading ability via cumulative short-term follow-up effects. Meanwhile, this collaborative model enables effective management of digital environmental exposure risks and may reduce risks related to visual and psychological health among school-age children. The intergroup differences remained stable with reliable effect sizes. This intervention model can be may provide a reference for future implementation as a digital public health intervention targeting school-age children’s early reading, and provides preliminary empirical evidence for the standardized application of AI-supported education for school-age children. This retrospective study only reflects the differences between groups of compound intervention programs in archived cases, and cannot establish strong causal inference.

زمینه: در بستر توانمندسازی دیجیتال، هوش مصنوعی مولد به طور گسترده‌ای در آموزش خواندن کودکان سن مدرسه به کار گرفته شده است و خواندن دیجیتال به یکی از انواع اصلی مواجهه‌ی محیطی برای کودکان سن مدرسه تبدیل شده است. با این حال، کودکان سن مدرسه با چالش‌هایی مانند کمبود محتوای متناسب با سن و فشارهای جسمی و روانی غیرقابل کنترل مواجه هستند. نیاز فوری به یک الگوی مداخله‌ی سلامت عمومی وجود دارد که منافع سلامت مرتبط با خواندن را متعادل کند، خطرات مواجهه‌ی دیجیتال را پیشگیری و کنترل نماید، از آسیب‌های سلامت جسمی و روانی جلوگیری کند و با کودکان سن مدرسه از زمینه‌های اجتماعی-اقتصادی متنوع سازگار باشد. روش‌ها: در این مطالعه از طرح کنترل گذشته‌نگر استفاده شد. در مجموع ۱۰۰ مورد از کودکان سن مدرسه ۶ تا ۱۲ ساله از آرشیو مداخله‌ی استانداردشده‌ی مؤسسه‌ی ما از سپتامبر ۲۰۲۵ تا دسامبر ۲۰۲۵ جمع‌آوری شد. بر اساس برنامه‌ی مداخله‌ای که واقعاً در سوابق آرشیو پذیرفته شده بود، آن‌ها به دو گروه مداخله‌ی مشارکتی و گروه خواندن صرفاً با هوش مصنوعی تقسیم شدند که هر گروه شامل ۵۰ نفر بود. در گروه خواندن صرفاً با هوش مصنوعی، مداخله‌ی ثبت‌شده صرفاً مداخله‌ی خواندن مستقل با هوش مصنوعی مولد بود (دانشجویان دانشگاه فقط مسئول راه‌اندازی و نگهداری تجهیزات بودند و در راهنمایی خواندن و مداخله‌ی عاطفی شرکت نداشتند)، در حالی که در گروه مداخله‌ی مشارکتی، مداخله‌ی ثبت‌شده، مداخله‌ی ساختاریافته‌ی کمکی مشارکتی در کل فرایند خواندن تعاملی چندمرحله‌ای صوتی با هوش مصنوعی مولد همراه با آموزش استانداردشده برای دانشجویان دانشگاه بود. دوره‌ی مداخله ۱۲ هفته، سه بار در هفته و هر بار ۲۰ تا ۲۵ دقیقه بود. تحلیل گذشته‌نگر داده‌های طولی در خط پایه، ۶ هفته مداخله، ۱۲ هفته پیگیری و ۴ هفته پیگیری انجام شد و امتیاز جامع خواندن اولیه به عنوان تنها شاخص اصلی از پیش تعیین‌شده در نظر گرفته شد. برای تحلیل اثرات بین‌گروهی و زمانی از تحلیل واریانس اندازه‌گیری مکرر، آزمون t مستقل و آزمون کای-دو استفاده شد، اندازه‌ی اثر با Cohen’s d ارزیابی شد و سطح آزمون α = ۰٫۰۵ بود. نتایج: داده‌های آرشیوی گذشته‌نگر نشان داد که پس از مداخله، گروه مداخله‌ی مشارکتی در امتیاز ترکیبی خواندن اولیه، آگاهی واجی، دقت درک واژگان، مدت زمان توجه به خواندن و امتیاز علاقه به خواندن به طور معناداری بالاتر از گروه خواندن صرفاً با هوش مصنوعی بود (p < 0.05). اثرات اصلی گروه، زمان و تعامل گروه-زمان همگی از نظر آماری بسیار معنادار بودند (p < 0.01) و اندازه‌ی اثر Cohen’s d = 0.50 نشان‌دهنده‌ی اثر مداخله‌ای متوسط بود. گروه مداخله‌ی مشارکتی همچنین نرخ پایبندی به مداخله، نرخ تکمیل تعامل با هوش مصنوعی، نرخ تکمیل وظیفه‌ی خواندن و فراوانی مشارکت فعال به طور معناداری بالاتری نسبت به گروه خواندن صرفاً با هوش مصنوعی نشان داد (p < 0.05). از نظر پیامدهای مرتبط با سلامت دیجیتال، گروه مداخله‌ی مشارکتی شیوع معناداری کمتری از وضعیت‌های روانی نامطلوب، نشانه‌های پیش‌درآمد خستگی بینایی و علائم خستگی چشمی دیجیتال و نرخ ترک تحصیل داشت (p < 0.05). در میان شاخص‌های ایمنی مرتبط با سلامت دیجیتال، شیوع هیجانات منفی، خستگی بینایی و نرخ ترک پژوهش به طور معناداری کمتر از گروه خواندن صرفاً با هوش مصنوعی بود (p < 0.05). سوابق آرشیوی نشان داد که مدت زمان کل استفاده از صفحه نمایش کاملاً مطابق با مقررات بوده و هیچ نشتی حریم خصوصی و رویداد نامطلوب جدی وجود نداشته است. نرخ مراجعه‌ی از دست رفته ۱۰٪ قابل کنترل بود و نرخ کامل بودن رضایت آگاهانه و نرخ اجرای واجد شرایط هر دو ۱۰۰٪ بود و هیچ نشتی حریم خصوصی و رویداد نامطلوب جدی وجود نداشت. نتیجه‌گیری: شیوه‌ی تعاملی هوش مصنوعی مولد همراه با حمایت کمکی دانشجویان دانشگاه با بهبود پایدار توانایی خواندن اولیه‌ی هسته‌ای کودکان سن مدرسه از طریق اثرات تجمعی پیگیری کوتاه‌مدت مرتبط است. در عین حال، این مدل مشارکتی امکان مدیریت مؤثر خطرات مواجهه با محیط دیجیتال را فراهم می‌کند و ممکن است خطرات مرتبط با سلامت بینایی و روانی کودکان سن مدرسه را کاهش دهد. تفاوت‌های بین‌گروهی با اندازه‌های اثر قابل اعتماد پایدار باقی ماندند. این مدل مداخله می‌تواند به عنوان مرجعی برای اجرای آینده به عنوان یک مداخله‌ی سلامت عمومی دیجیتال با هدف خواندن اولیه‌ی کودکان سن مدرسه مورد استفاده قرار گیرد و شواهد تجربی مقدماتی برای کاربرد استاندارد آموزش مبتنی بر هوش مصنوعی برای کودکان سن مدرسه فراهم می‌کند. این مطالعه‌ی گذشته‌نگر فقط تفاوت‌های بین گروه‌های برنامه‌های مداخله‌ی ترکیبی در موارد آرشیوی را منعکس می‌کند و نمی‌تواند استنباط علّی قوی ایجاد کند.

This multicohort randomized controlled trial examined the efficacy of Sound Partners, a structured early reading intervention, when delivered by cross-age tutors or adult tutors within YMCA afterschool programs. Across 69 schools (N = 770 students in grades K–5), schools were randomized to cross-age tutoring, adult tutoring, or business-as-usual. Intent-to-treat analyses revealed modest, educationally meaningful effects for adult-delivered tutoring on sight word efficiency, with smaller, nonsignificant effects for cross-age tutoring. Complier Average Causal Effect models demonstrated that receiving a full instructional dose (50+ lessons) yielded substantial gains for tutors in passage comprehension and for tutees in word reading and fluency, regardless of tutor type. No significant differences emerged between adult and cross-age tutoring conditions, suggesting that structured lessons may reduce variability in tutor effectiveness. Findings highlight cross-age tutoring as a feasible, cost-effective model that can strengthen early literacy outcomes in community-based afterschool settings.

این کارآزمایی تصادفی‌شده‌ی کنترل‌شده‌ی چندگروهی به بررسی اثربخشی برنامه‌ی Sound Partners، یک مداخله‌ی ساختاریافته‌ی خواندن اولیه، هنگامی که توسط آموزگاران با تفاوت سنی یا آموزگاران بزرگسال در برنامه‌های فوق‌برنامه‌ی YMCA ارائه می‌شود، پرداخت. در ۶۹ مدرسه (N = ۷۷۰ دانش‌آموز پایه‌های K تا ۵)، مدارس به آموزش همسالان با تفاوت سنی، آموزش بزرگسالان یا وضعیت معمول تقسیم شدند. تحلیل‌های مبتنی بر قصد درمان نشان داد که آموزش ارائه‌شده توسط بزرگسالان تأثیرات متوسط و از لحاظ آموزشی معناداری بر کارایی واژه‌های دیداری دارد، در حالی که تأثیرات آموزش همسالان با تفاوت سنی کمتر و غیرمعنادار بود. مدل‌های اثر علّی متوسط برای پیروان نشان داد که دریافت دوز کامل آموزشی (۵۰ درس یا بیشتر) منجر به پیشرفت قابل توجهی برای آموزگاران در درک مطلب و برای فراگیران در خواندن واژه و روان‌خوانی می‌شود، صرف‌نظر از نوع آموزگار. هیچ تفاوت معناداری بین شرایط آموزش بزرگسالان و آموزش همسالان با تفاوت سنی مشاهده نشد که نشان می‌دهد درس‌های ساختاریافته می‌تواند تغییرپذیری در اثربخشی آموزگاران را کاهش دهد. یافته‌ها آموزش همسالان با تفاوت سنی را به عنوان مدلی عملی و مقرون‌به‌صرفه که می‌تواند پیامدهای سوادآموزی اولیه را در محیط‌های فوق‌برنامه‌ی مبتنی بر جامعه تقویت کند، برجسته می‌کند.