An interventional study of phonemic segmentation in Early Literacy, Articulatory Gestures and Phonemic Awareness, sponsored by Montclair State University. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 48 Months to 59 Months, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-08-31.
Sponsored by Montclair State University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
This study will use an experimental design to explore if articulatory gestures (with letters and phonemic awareness training) enhance early literacy skills more than general mouth awareness training (with letters and phonemic awareness training) or letter/phonemic awareness training alone.
Multisensory reading strategies, which recruit one or more of the five senses, are routinely used in general education classrooms as well as with children who are struggling readers. Despite their wide use in schools, little research exists to substantiate the utilizing these strategies to enhance literacy. One type of multisensory reading strategy, articulatory gestures, is of particular interest to speech-language pathologists (SLPs) as they are uniquely positioned to provide speech sound placement cues. Limitations of the few prior studies that exist have prevented the isolation of the articulatory gestures themselves as the main contributor to the gains seen in literacy. This study aims to control for factors such as motivation, engagement, and time on task to explore the specific contribution of articulation strategies during phonemic awareness training on phoneme segmentation, reading of phonemically spelled words, and nonword reading in typically developing four-year old children. Using an experimental design, participants will be randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) phonemic awareness training with articulatory gestures, 2) phonemic awareness training with general mouth pictures, and 3) phonemic awareness training with no mouth/articulation pictures at all. Interventions will focus on phoneme-letter correspondence and phonemic segmentation using strategies specific to each group and differences between groups will be considered for pre and posttest measures.
201 studies on the registry are indexed under Literacy; 69 are open to participants now.
This study's enrollment of 9 is below the median of 124 across 170 interventional studies indexed under Literacy.
Browse Literacy studies →Montclair State University is the lead sponsor of 13 studies on the registry; 5 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters, sounds (phonemes) while simultaneously learning the articulation placements of the letters/sounds.
Behavioral: phonemic segmentation
This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters, sounds (phonemes) while simultaneously learning about the mouth in general.
Behavioral: phonemic segmentation
This group will receive training for phonemic segmentation that includes using printed letters and sounds (phonemes) only.
Behavioral: phonemic segmentation
during phonemic segmentation activities, articulatory gestures will be used while teaching letters and their sounds.
number of words correctly phonemically segmented from primary investigator created list
will tell the sounds in 9 words presented orally
Time frame: immediately after the intervention
number of words read correctly from primary investigator created list
will read phonemically 6 spelled words
Time frame: immediately after the intervention
number of nonwords read correctly from primary investigator created list
will read 7 nonwords
Time frame: immediately after the intervention
Plan to share: No
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
This study is completed, as verified in Aug 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Montclair State University