NEUROLOGICAL INTEGRATED APPROACH 1

Neurological Integrated Approach in Teaching Letter Sound, Formation, and Phonics

Nuong Nguyen

California State University, Monterey Bay

Cohort MIST XII

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I. Introduction

In the article How a Neurologically Integrated Approach Which Teaches Sound-Symbol

Correspondence and Legible Letter Formations Impacts At-Risk First Graders, Donita Shaw

and Mary Sundberg conduct a quasi-experimental study that uses the integrated alphabet

approach in teaching letter sounds and formations to 43 economically disadvantaged first

graders. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of the approach, which mirrors brain

development in teaching letter formation and sounds (Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 13).
Shaw and Sundbergs study focuses on three guided questions:
1. To what extent would at-risk pre-first grade students be able to correctly recall all 26

letter sounds after receiving neurological intervention?

2. To what extent would at-risk pre-first grade students be able to properly write all 26

letter forms after receiving neurological intervention?

3. To what extent would at-risk pre-first grade students be able to apply phonic

knowledge? (Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 15)

The three guided questions are explicitly stated and clearly focus on the alphabet sounds,

formation, and phonics. From the background information, the researchers express a negative

bias in describing the subject of the study. Shaw & Sundberg (2008) portrays African Americans

as poor academic achievers with low socioeconomic status. She further points out that children

of low socioeconomic status also struggle with letter and sound identification, which are at risk

for reading and writing difficulties.

The researchers make a convincing case that there needs to be an effective intervention to

close the achievement gap and help those students at risk through developmentally appropriate

activities (Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 14). She advocates a summer program using the

neurological integrated approach prior to first grade to allow extra support to students struggling

with letter sounds, in hopes of reducing struggling readers in first grade.

II. Research Procedures (Methods)
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Donita Shaw and Mary Sundbergs (2008) study utilized quantitative measurement with

statistical analysis of the data. The results were taken from the pre and post assessment of the

students knowledge of their letter sounds, formation, and phonics. The teachers were taught the

integrated alphabet approach through a hands-on one day training. The teachers were trained to

show an image with the letter, make the sound, and outline the letter all simultaneously. Thus, in

the future, the learner will be able to associate the image with the sound and letter. Sundberg

wanted to use the visual gestalt hemisphere to stimulate the temporal and frontal lobes (14).
The study comprised of 43 African American students out of 120, who were identified

at risk by the school for not being able to identify the alphabet sounds and formation (Shaw &

Sundberg, 2008, p. 15). This is representative of the target population since the focus is on

minority status and economically disadvantaged youth. The student enrolled in the summer

school program from their local schools, where they were instructed using the integrated

alphabet approach for 20 days for a total of 51 hours from five fully trained public school

teachers.
The results of the integrated alphabet approach showed the majority of the students were

able to identify the 26 letter sounds and correctly write the lowercase letters. For the phonic

knowledge, the study used the Early Reading Screening Instrument. Only 31 out of 43 were

tested due to miscommunication between administration and teacher and parents regarding the

last day of summer school (Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 19). From the phonic results, there was

growth and improvement.

The measurement was valid and reliable. The data shows the results of the five groups

using the same tests and procedures. The teachers were all trained in the same fashion, which

was the independent variable. The study also accounted for attendance; however, that did not

affect the students learning.

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The assessment procedures were clear and can be easily replicated. First, the students

were asked to identify the sounds, then the letter name, and lastly, how to spell the word. There

was a clear description of how to score the students responses. For example, the students would

earn 3 points for spelling bac (back) for including the initial and final phonemes and vowel

correctly. The scoring criteria provides consistency for assessing all the students.
The study used descriptive statistics to show the mean and standard deviation of each of

the assessment results. Each of the variables in the study emerged in a meaningful way from the

results. The students showed significant improvement from the pre to the post test for all three

variables: letter sounds, formation, and phonics.

III. Discussion of Results
The results of the data analyses support the integrated alphabet approach as being

effective in teaching the students their sounds and letter formation. From the data, the students

demonstrated that they knew all their sound, had few errors writing their letters, and improved in

writing sounds into words.

The researchers were able to thoroughly explain their findings with many reasons. First,

the approach combined letter movement and sound together when reading and writing the letters,

instead of teaching the phonics and handwriting in isolation. Thus, the approach tries to

logically connect the letters sound and shape (Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 19). Second, the

approach uses pictures to stimulate the right hemisphere. The abstract letter is now associated

with pictures and fun stories. Third, explicit instructions were used along with guided practice,

which help eliminate errors early on.

Lastly, the alphabet approach follows logical steps in teaching the letter sounds and

shapes. Instead of the typically traditional method of teaching the letter a, then b. The alphabet

approach might teach similar shapes like a, o, and c. The students use their previous knowledge

in learning how to write the next letter. Also, instead of using the ball-and-stick method of letter

formation, continuous strokes are used to help avoid directionality problems and disintegration
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(Shaw & Sundberg, 2008, p. 19). Careful instruction is given when teaching the students how

to write the diagonal line, since children have a hard time crossing their midline at age 6. The

researchers were able to draw reasonable implications for practice from the findings since the

approach uses methods that supports the way a childs brain develops.
IV. Summary
The study is valuable to me as a first grade teacher in teaching my students how to read

and write. The interesting part was the connection between the way the brain works and how the

students learn best. The students coming in from kindergarten struggle with their sounds,

reading, and letter reversals. According to the results, the approach had a huge success and it

would benefit my school to use this method when teaching students. After reading this study, I

plan on implementing this method on a couple of my struggling readers to see its effectiveness.

References

Shaw, D.M., & Sundberg, M.L. (2008). How a neurologically integrated approach which teaches

sound-symbol correspondence and legible letter formations impacts at-risk first graders.

Journal of At-Risk Issues, 14(1), 13-21. Retrieved from

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ942830.pdf