Current Practices for Teaching Letter and Letter Sound Knowledge in Preschool Including Strategies for Improving Instruction in these Areas

Abstract

Head Start teachers (N= 48) were interviewed about their beliefs and practices for supporting letter knowledge in their classrooms. Results highlighted that teachers believed letter knowledge to be important skill for preschoolers to develop and articulated a variety of approaches to supporting this skill within their classrooms. Promoting letter knowledge through play and children’s name letters were popular approaches; however, teachers missed many opportunities to promote letter and letter-sound knowledge with their children. Thus, in addition to presenting findings from semi-structured interviews, this article provides a range of research-based practices available to promote letter and letter-sound knowledge during preschool.