Evaluation of school performance after exposure to a computerized reading and writing program

Abstract

This research verified the effects of a reading and writing teaching program, ALEPP® (Aprendendo a Ler e Escrever em Pequenos Passos; in English: “Learning to Read and Write in Small Steps”) on the initial academic repertoire of students in multifunctional space. A total of 14 students participated from a public school multifunctional space, 11 boys and three girls, with an average age of 10 years and different diagnoses. The students were divided into two groups (GM1 and GM2) according to their initial repertoires in reading and writing and exposed to specific teaching modules of ALEPP; GM1, 7 participants, exposed to teaching with simple words; GM2, 7 participants, exposed to teaching with words with spelling complexities. ALEPP consists of steps that teach three to four words at a time, minimizing errors and requiring mastery of step change. Performance measures were taken after exposure to each step of teaching (internal to ALEPP) and before and after intervention by ALEPP measures by the School Performance Test (external to ALEPP).The results demonstrated progression in ALEPP steps by participants with low cost of response and performance measurements by TDE indicated a statistically significant difference on the improvement in the reading repertoire of both groups. The writing repertoire improved, but without statistical significance. The advantages of ALEPP in applied contexts is discussed, as well as the modifications necessary to extend the good results in reading for writing.