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Headsprout® Early Reading2 is an Internet-based supplemental early literacy curriculum consisting of eighty 20-minute animated episodes, the first 40 of which are appropriate for prekindergarten age students. The episodes are designed to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. The program adapts to a child’s responses, providing additional instruction and review if a child does not choose the correct answer. Teachers may use stories based on the episodes to reinforce instruction provided in the lessons.
One study of Headsprout® Early Reading meets What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards and no studies meet WWC evidence standards with reservations. This study included 62 preschool children across five classrooms in two Head Start centers in Florida.4
Based on this study, the WWC considers the extent of evidence for Headsprout® Early Reading to be small for oral language and print knowledge. No studies that meet WWC evidence standards with or without reservations examined the effectiveness of Headsprout® Early Reading in the phonological processing, early reading and writing, cognition, and math domains.
Effectiveness
Headsprout® Early Reading was found to have potentially positive effects on oral language and print knowledge.
| Oral language |
Print knowledge | Phonological processing | Early reading and writing | Cognition | Math | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Potentially positive | Potentially positive | na | na | na | na |
| Improvement index | +22 percentile points | +22 percentile points | na | na | na | na |
| na = not applicable | ||||||
1 The descriptive information for this program was obtained from a publicly available source: the program’s website (www.headsprout.com/, downloaded August 2009). The WWC requests developers to review the program description sections for accuracy from their perspective. Further verification of the accuracy of the descriptive information for this program is beyond the scope of this review.
2 The evidence presented in this report is applicable only to the first 40 episodes of Headsprout® Early Reading.
3 The studies in this report were reviewed using WWC Evidence Standards, Version 2.0 (see the WWC Procedures and Standards Handbook, Chapter III).
4 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.
|Institute of Education Sciences
Early Childhood Education