The Effect of Articulatory Cues on Phonemic Segmentation, Word Reading, Nonword Reading, and Nonword Spelling: A Clinical Trial

Purpose: Although some studies suggest articulatory cues may help enhance early literacy outcomes, research has yet to isolate their specific contribution to the gains. Framed by the motor theory of speech perception (Liberman & Mattingly, 1985), this study seeks to fill this gap by providing phonemic segmentation training using articulatory cues and comparing reading/spelling outcomes to two different comparison groups to attempt to control for the motivation and attention the articulatory cues may provide. Method: Twenty-seven typically developing four and five year-olds were seen individually for seven weekly sessions during a typical day in a preschool classroom (NCT06504264). The participants were assigned to one of three groups which differed in intervention strategy: letters/phonemes/articulatory cues, letters/phonemes/general mouth awareness, and letters/phonemes only. Differences between pre and post-test outcomes were compared for each group, including measures of phoneme segmentation, reading of phonemically spelled words, nonword reading, and nonword spelling of words and sounds. Results: Data analysis suggested that phonemic awareness training with articulatory cues may benefit nonword spelling compared to letter/phonemes only and marginally benefit phonemic segmentation compared to general mouth pictures in typically developing children. Conclusions: Articulatory cues may provide modest advantages for phonemic segmentation and nonword spelling. These results suggest that articulatory cues may be most beneficial as a targeted support to tasks which rely heavily on the ability to segment sounds. Future research is needed to further delineate these effects with both typically developing children and those at risk for literacy challenges.