Background: Information and communication technology (ICT) reading interventions can help children with reading difficulties, especially those in resource-constrained environments who otherwise might not have support.

Objectives: (1) Provide an overview of ICT reading interventions used globally with primary school children. (2) Provide further information on the subset of studies conducted in majority world countries, describing the interventions used, their impact on reading and challenges faced.

Method: A scoping review was used with a search strategy that yielded a total of 49 studies for inclusion in the main review (Objective 1), and a subset of five studies undertaken in the majority world (Objective 2).

Results: Most published studies (93.88%, 46 studies) demonstrated positive outcomes of ICT reading interventions on learners’ reading. Well-researched programmes with demonstrated effectiveness included GraphoGame, ABRACADABRA, Reading RACES and Chassymo. Only five studies (10.2%) were conducted in the majority world, but all reported in this subset described positive literacy gains through ABRACADABRA and GraphoGame.

Conclusion: There is a growing evidence base of ICT reading interventions that could be helpful in addressing the reading crisis in South Africa. Programmes such as ABRACADABRA and GraphoGame demonstrate effectiveness in a variety of contexts and may have a role to play in addressing the reading challenges faced by children in South Africa.

Contribution: The review highlighted evidence supporting the use of ICT reading interventions. Evidence of such approaches in South Africa (and other majority world countries) remains limited and requires further evaluation of both existing and innovative, locally developed interventions.

Keywords: reading interventions; ICT; computer-based; applications; effectiveness.

Introduction

The majority of South African learners are not developing the reading skills expected for each grade when compared to their international peers (Department of Basic Education 2014; Mullis et al. 2017). This is a multifaceted problem linked to a complex interplay of educational, political, social and economic factors described by authors such as Spaull (2013). Factors related to learners’ underperformance include resource constraints, inadequate teacher training, poor instructional practices, low parental literacy levels, learning in a second or additional language, and high rates of absenteeism (Howie et al. 2017). Multifaceted interventions that focus on a range of aspects such as infrastructure, teacher training and classroom interventions are necessary to address the situation and bring about a more positive outlook.

In this article we focus specifically on interventions for learners with reading difficulties, based on our backgrounds as speech-language therapists (SLTs) working to support learners with literacy and language challenges. Speech-language therapists play an important role in promoting the communication and literacy development of children and providing evidence-based intervention to at-risk individuals. However, SLTs comprise a small professional group in South Africa, culturally and linguistically appropriate resources are scarce, and most SLTs working in the public sector are employed by health rather than education departments. There is thus an urgent need for innovative approaches to help SLTs increase their reach (Nadler-Nir & Pascoe 2016).

Large-scale, population-based interventions are required to target reading in South African schools. In their evidence-based profession, it is important for SLTs to know which interventions have demonstrated effectiveness, as well as to expand the evidence base through ongoing intervention studies.

Reading intervention research shows that targeting phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension in an explicit, intensive and systematic manner improves reading skills (Galuschka et al. 2014; Gibson & Musti-Rao 2017; National Reading Panel 2000; Suggate 2016). Despite this knowledge, serving the large population of children requiring reading intervention is a challenge, especially in resource-constrained contexts. One approach to providing reading support is through the use of information and communication technology (ICT) programmes. There is a wide range of technology-based tools available to help children develop their reading, spelling and language abilities. These vary in terms of the ages targeted, their specific focus, platforms used, accessibility and cost. Although not all studies investigating the impact of ICT-based approaches to reading have reported positive outcomes (Campuzano et al. 2009), reviews and meta-analyses indicate that many ICT programmes produce gains in phonological awareness, phonics, word reading, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension of school-aged children (Cheung & Slavin 2011, 2013; Jamshidifarsani et al. 2019; Moran et al. 2008). Information and communication technology-based reading intervention holds potential for improving the reading skills of children by harnessing their motivation to learn through feelings of autonomy (making choices), competence (achieving goals), and relatedness (sharing experiences with another individual), providing immediate feedback and having the capacity to be intensive, individualised, and at the appropriate level of difficulty, and enabling independent use or the presence of non-professionals (McTigue & Uppstad 2018).

In this scoping review we set out to describe ICT interventions for reading and their outcomes as described in the literature. A particular aim of the study was to consider interventions developed for, or investigated in the majority world (developing) contexts which might offer solutions to the challenges faced in South Africa.

The objectives of the study were to: (1) provide an overview of ICT-based reading interventions described in the literature over the last decade (2009–2019) and (2) consider the subset of ICT reading interventions conducted in the majority world and their impact on learners’ reading skills and challenges faced, which could lead to recommendations for research conducted in similar contexts, such as South Africa.

Methodology

Scoping reviews are used to map the main sources and types of evidence available, and are particularly useful when an area is complex or has not been reviewed comprehensively before. Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) framework has five steps: (1) identifying the research question or aim. This review set out to describe ICT reading interventions for primary school learners undertaken in the last decade. In particular we wanted to know what work has been undertaken in the majority world so that we could investigate programmes reported to be effective in this context and build on them further. (2) Identifying and (3) selecting relevant studies. A search strategy, criteria for eligibility and study selection were devised, and are described in the following sections. (4) Data are then charted, collated and (5) reported in the results section of the article. The search took place between June 2018 and June 2019, undertaken mainly by the first author with the other two authors in a checking and support role. To ensure a valid and reliable process, measures were put in place such as team briefings on a regular basis to discuss any uncertainties regarding the process and findings to date.

Search strategy

First, a pilot phase was initiated in which one database was searched using a set of core terms. Titles, keywords and index terms taken from this initial set of papers were then used to develop the list of search terms further. Second, following the pilot phase, researchers then used the complete search term list with the full set of electronic databases. Keywords were entered into the electronic databases of PsycArticles, PsychINFO, ERIC, Computers and Applied Sciences Complete, Academic Search Premier and CINAHL.

The keywords were: information and communication technology; computer-assisted; computer-based; laptop; smartphone; iPhone; tablet; iPad; application; programme; software; reading intervention; reading instruction; reading therapy; reading remedial; primary school; elementary school; middle school; junior school; children and learners.

Eligibility criteria

Due to time and resource constraints we were only able to access and review papers in English, and grey literature (e.g. postgraduate student projects, government reports) was not searched. Meta-analyses, reviews and editorial or discussion pieces were excluded. We wanted to access original research papers that might have contributed to a meta-analysis or review, or informed a discussion piece. We aimed to access original research where full methodological information and results could be accessed. Titles and abstracts of papers generated by the search were reviewed by the team.

Study selection

The first author screened the titles and abstracts of the articles from the electronic search, and then read full texts of all papers that met the eligibility criteria. Papers were excluded when the eligibility criteria were not met. If a full-text article could not be accessed, it was automatically excluded from the database. A total of 49 studies met the inclusion criteria and were subsequently included in the review.

Data collection

After identification of relevant papers, full-text articles were read and data extracted from them. Detailed information about resources was charted in a spreadsheet including the name of the paper, authors, journal, country in which the study took place, research design, number and nature of participants, the name or description of intervention, devices used, outcomes measured, person supporting the intervention, and summary of outcomes. To ensure reliable reporting, the second and third authors cross-checked a proportion (20%) of all entries into the database.

Results

Overview of ICT-based reading interventions described in the literature

In the 49 papers included in this part of the study, the most commonly used design was an experimental pre-post design with random assignment to groups at the level of schools, classes or learners (23 studies; 46.94%) and experimental multiple baseline design across participants (10 studies; 20.4%). There were 27 (55.1%) studies where ICT interventions were compared to a control group receiving no intervention and 16 (32.65%) studies that evaluated ICT interventions against other interventions. Sample sizes varied widely with most studies (29/49, 59.2%) having fewer than 100 participants. Of the studies that described the grade of the participants, most focused on children in Grades 1 to 3. Most (40/49; 81.6%) had both male and female participants. The studies included learners with different characteristics such as: at risk of having reading difficulties (7; 14.29%), reading difficulties (26; 53.1%), language difficulties (3; 6.12%), and learners from mainstream schools not included based on any identified difficulties (13; 26.53%). Five studies included learners with additional difficulties (such as intellectual disability, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder and learning disability). Of the studies that reported the language characteristics of the participants, 29 investigated monolingual children, 9 involved bilingual children and 4 worked with bi- and monolingual children. Many studies did not report on the languages of the participants.

A total of 46 different ICT reading interventions were described. Some studies evaluated one programme while others used two or more, comparing outcomes between groups. Programmes used in more than two studies included GraphoGame/GraphoLearn (henceforth GraphoGame) (used in 10 papers), ABRACADABRA (6 papers), Reading RACES (3 papers) and Chassymo (3 papers). These ‘big four’ programmes thus dominated the literature for the time period investigated. GraphoGame targets multiple levels of reading (phonics and letter-sound knowledge, phonological awareness and word reading). It is a theoretically informed intervention that has been well researched over many years and adapted for use in a variety of different languages. The programme is available to all school-aged children in Finland, and in many other countries around the world in adapted forms (see Ojanen et al. 2015 for further information).

ABRACADABRA similarly targets a range of skills including phonics and letter-sound knowledge, word reading, reading and listening comprehension, reading fluency and meta-cognition in reading and writing. It was developed in Canada and has been extensively used there as well as in Australia. It is based on the recommendations of the National Reading Panel (2000) and includes a variety of different activities tailored to children’s specific abilities and challenges. Reading RACES focuses on oral reading fluency through a repeated reading strategy using culturally relevant stories for primary school children. Chassymo, developed in French, focuses on the syllable as the main processing unit in reading and requires learners to hear or read syllables in a carefully programmed presentation. Most of the other interventions targeted two or more skills, such as reading fluency and comprehension (e.g. Bennett et al. 2017) while a smaller number focused solely on one particular skill such as sight-word reading (e.g. Musti-Rao, Lo & Plati 2015), or reading comprehension (e.g. Ponce, López & Mayer 2012).

Interventions were delivered in various languages, although English dominated (30 studies, 61.22%). Of the studies that described the language background of the learners, there were 30 where the intervention was in the participants’ home language, 6 where the intervention was in the participants’ second language, 2 where the intervention was in the first and second language and 4 where the language of intervention was some participants’ home language but other participants’ second language. A total of 18 different countries were represented. Almost half of the papers were from US-based studies (21 papers) and other countries that were well represented included France (4), England (3), Sweden (3), and Canada (3).

The devices used to deliver intervention mainly included computers (35; 71.42%) and iPads or tablets (10; 20.4%). There was a balance between studies that required facilitation (25; 51.02%) and those in which learners worked independently (22; 44.89%). When intervention was facilitated this was most typically done by trained teachers. Intervention intensity varied across studies with reported total intervention time ranging from 50 min to 109 h. The mean length of total intervention time was 16 h typically undertaken in half-hour blocks delivered two to three times per week. Most studies (29, 59.18%) used standardised outcome measures. Some used non-standardised outcome measures (13, 26.5%) and the remainder used a combination of both standardised and non-standardised outcome measures. The number of studies that found intervention effects for their outcome measures was calculated. There were three studies that did not demonstrate effects on any outcome measures, nine that demonstrated effects on 15% – 50% of outcome measures, five that showed effects on 60% – 75% of outcome measures and 27 that showed effects on all outcome measures. There were five studies where the findings could not be categorised into these groups.

Therefore, of the studies that could be clustered into these groups, the vast majority (41/44; 93.18%) demonstrated some form of positive effect of ICT reading intervention on learners’ reading and reading-related skills and most (32/44; 72.73%) showed improvements on 60% – 100% of outcome measures. Table 1 shows a mapping of the 49 papers to give an overview of the designs used, sample sizes and participants, intervention and outcomes. Further detail for each of the 49 papers is provided in the appendices (Tables 1-A1–-3-A1).

Results from the first part of the study indicated a substantial number of ICT interventions for reading that have been researched and published in peer-reviewed journals over the past decade. Most of the programmes demonstrated positive effects on children’s literacy and language, despite variation in the nature and duration of the programmes. A small set of programmes (GraphoGame, ABRACADABRA, Reading RACES, and Chassymo) appeared in multiple studies and seem to have been most rigorously investigated in the 10-year period to demonstrate their effectiveness in different contexts. Given our specific context and challenges in South Africa, the second part of the review focused on a subset of studies from the main scoping review, ICT interventions undertaken in majority world countries, which we considered might be especially applicable to children in South Africa.

ICT reading interventions conducted in the majority world and their impact on learners’ reading skills

In the main data set we found five studies conducted in the majority world: two in Kenya, and one in each of Zambia, India and Tanzania, constituting 10.2% of the total number of papers found in the review. These five studies used two interventions from the ‘big four’ group introduced in the previous section: ABRACADABRA and GraphoGame. All studies conducted in the majority world demonstrated improvements in learners’ reading skills as a result of the ICT intervention. Two of the studies found positive intervention effects on all outcome measures and three noted positive intervention effects on at least half of their outcome measures. Table 2 provides an overview of these studies.

Lysenko et al. (2019) conducted a study in Kenya that examined the effect of English ABRACADABRA intervention (targeting phonological awareness, phonics, word reading, fluency, vocabulary, listening comprehension, reading comprehension and writing) and READS intervention (online stories and books available in English and Kiswahili to improve reading fluency and comprehension) on English literacy skills. A quasi-experimental design was used with a large sample (n = 1672) of Grade 1–3 children learning English as a second language in mainstream schools. Schools were non-randomly assigned to ICT intervention or control conditions. Trained teachers facilitated intervention for a total of 2 h per week for a total of 16 weeks. Standardised assessments of English oral language and reading skills as well as participants’ national examination results (in English, Social Studies, Mathematics and Science) were used as outcome measures. The results showed that intervention participants significantly outperformed control participants on all measures. Another study using ABRACADABRA was undertaken by Abrami et al. (2016) in Kenya to investigate the impact of English ABRACADABRA intervention on mainstream Grade 2 children (n = 354) learning English as a second language. An experimental pre-test-post-test design with random assignment of classes to conditions (intervention versus no intervention or control) was used.

Intervention participants made significant gains in reading comprehension and listening comprehension compared to the control group and participants in the intervention group significantly outperformed children in the control group in the national examinations.

Ngorosho (2018) conducted a study in Tanzania that investigated the impact of Kiswahili GraphoGame (targeting phonological awareness, phonics and word reading) on Kiswahili literacy skills. An alternating treatment design with random assignment of schools to groups (ICT intervention versus non-ICT classroom intervention versus no intervention or control) was used. Participants were Kiswahili home language Grade 1 learners (n = 49) with poor reading skills. Participants accessed GraphoGame via smartphones and worked independently (without adults being involved in instruction) for three sessions per day, 10 min per session, 5 days a week (a total of 2–4 h of intervention). Non-standardised outcome measures were used. The findings indicated significant improvements for both the ICT and non-ICT classroom intervention, although the ICT intervention led to the greatest improvement. Jere-Folotiya et al. (2014) conducted a study in Zambia to determine the effect of ciNyanja GraphoGame on mainstream Grade 1 (n = 573) children’s ciNyanja literacy skills. As for the Tanzanian study, learners accessed intervention independently on smartphones 3–5 days per week (for six sessions which were 7–9 min long per day) for a total of 1 h and 34 min of intervention. Standardised measures of orthographic awareness and spelling acted as outcome measures. The results showed that the intervention improved the spelling (intervention participants significantly outperformed control participants) but not the orthographic awareness of participants. The learners who were exposed to intervention directly (played GraphoGame) and indirectly (teacher played GraphoGame) produced significant improvements in spelling compared to control learners.

Patel et al. (2018) conducted a study in India using an experimental pre-test-post-test design with random assignment to conditions (ICT reading intervention versus an ICT Mathematics intervention control). Grade 3 learners (n = 30) with reading difficulties who did not have English as a home language but were attending a school where English was the medium of instruction participated. Intervention participants used English GraphoGame (to improve phonological awareness, phonics and word reading) independently on tablets for 8 weeks (20–30 min per session and six sessions per week). Non-standardised (informal in-game assessments) and standardised literacy assessments were used as outcome measures. Significant improvements in favour of the intervention group were found for all GraphoGame in-game measures but there was no difference between the improvements of the intervention and control groups on the standardised measures. These interventions are summarised in Table 3.

The five studies conducted in the majority world (Abrami et al. 2016; Jere-Folotiya et al. 2014; Lysenko et al. 2019; Ngorosho 2018; Patel et al. 2018) reported a range of study-related challenges: learners had limited exposure to technology before beginning the intervention, high rates of learner absenteeism, learners arriving at school late, finding time for supplemental ICT intervention in a curriculum-determined timetable, lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate assessment measures (and lack of standardisation of assessments on the study population), technological issues, and venue constraints (no quiet venues at schools where intervention and assessments could be conducted). They reported the following contextual challenges: poor infrastructure, shortage of reading and teaching materials, poor working conditions for teachers, teachers inadequately trained for literacy instruction, poor teaching methods (rote learning), learners not being exposed to the language of learning and teaching in the home environment, parents having low literacy levels or being illiterate, and lack of learner exposure to literacy activities in the home environment.

Discussion

Research conducted in the last decade suggests that ICT approaches to reading intervention can lead to improvements in learners’ reading skills, and thus offers potential for providing support to large numbers of children who require it – especially in places such as South Africa which has an acknowledged literacy crisis (Spaull 2013). There were only four studies in the scoping review that were conducted in Africa and none of these was conducted in South Africa. However, the small subset of papers from the majority world tentatively suggest that ICT-based approaches to reading intervention may be helpful for improving the reading skills of children in settings with a similar socio-economic status and achievement profile to ours. The review highlights a gap in research that should be addressed due to the potential positive impact ICT reading interventions could have in such contexts.

Speech and language therapy is an evidence-based profession so professionals recommending or facilitating ICT literacy interventions will need to know which interventions have been shown to be effective, and the extent of the evidence. Some of the interventions in this review have been researched in many studies including other countries in Africa. We described the ‘big four’ ICT interventions emerging from the review which were GraphoGame, ABRACADABRA, Reading RACES and Chassymo. They are starting to emerge as programmes that could be considered for at-scale intervention in South Africa. In particular GraphoGame and ABRACADABRA have been used in many different contexts, including majority world countries. GraphoGame has been successfully adapted into many languages and this adaptation would be particularly important for its use in South Africa too. Here it would be important for the programme to be adapted into learners’ home languages, as well as second or additional languages because in Grade 4 there is a shift from mother tongue instruction to English or Afrikaans instruction in schools. Care would need to be taken to ensure cultural and linguistic appropriateness, but the effective adaptation and use in Zambia and Tanzania suggests that adaptation would be feasible. Home language interventions could be used to scaffold and support the development of English or Afrikaans language and literacy skills. The review found only a few studies with bilingual participants, which does not reflect the high international rates of childhood bilingualism (Paradis, Genesee & Crago 2011). There is also a great need for interventions to be developed specifically for bilingual learners and for their efficacy to be determined.

Although the potential of interventions such as GraphoGame for South Africa is clear, it is not to say that this intervention works better than other interventions. Rather it has been researched more and the process of evidence generation is more advanced than for some other programmes. The relative cost effectiveness and efficiency (ease of implementation) of each approach would need to be examined further so that the approaches with the strongest evidence and feasibility for implementation are selected at schools. Evidence-based practice refers to interventions and their application in particular contexts with particular individuals. Thus, interventions that are designed and tested in a particular setting with a group of children with particular characteristics may not be appropriate or effective for another setting or group of children. The use of established interventions would also not preclude the urgent need to develop and trial our own local interventions that may ultimately prove to be as effective.

South Africa has one of the highest mobile phone penetrations in the world (Ojo 2018) and therefore the use of smartphone-based interventions for improving both health and education is relevant. The two GraphoGame studies undertaken in Africa involved children using smartphones to access the intervention, and this approach may be worth considering further. During the COVID-19 pandemic when South Africa’s schools were closed many children had no access to learning materials or any sort of educational support.

Smartphone-based apps such as GraphoGame could enable children to develop their reading skills anywhere and anytime, especially if the relevant apps were freely available and access to the data was zero-rated. Although findings related to intervention intensity and facilitation did not reveal clear patterns related to their relative effectiveness, studies with four to five sessions per week produced more widespread improvements than those with one to three sessions per week.

The studies conducted in the majority world reported a number of challenges associated with intervention delivery. Information and communication technology-based reading intervention studies conducted in similar contexts should provide training to learners on how to use technological devices and provide opportunities for learners to become familiar with the devices before intervention commences. Smartphones are likely to be familiar to many children, but they may not be able to have access to their own device and may not be able to bring it to school. Innovative solutions to venue constraints such as having multiple intervention slots where only a few learners attend an intervention at each time, rearranging furniture and using classroom dividers, and dividing learners into groups may need to be considered in schools – highlighting a need for addressing basic infrastructure, which remains problematic in many South African schools. There is an urgent need to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate reading, teaching and assessment materials together with training opportunities related to how resources can be used. Workshops for teachers that focus on effective literacy instruction, and for parents who have low literacy levels related to how they can support their children’s literacy learning, will also be valuable and should be seen as part of a broader solution to addressing challenges that an ICT intervention alone will not be able to address.

The scoping review may present a biased impression of the effectiveness of ICT interventions as studies demonstrating no effect are less likely to be published (Djulbegovic & Guyatt 2017). Our review was also limited in that we only focused on a 10-year period and did not consider studies that were published in languages other than English and that used non-experimental methods. A systematic review or meta-analysis that seeks to address more specific questions about ICT reading interventions would be helpful, along with further studies that trial and evaluate ICT interventions in the majority world where they are most needed.

Conclusion

The scoping review described the characteristics of 49 ICT-based reading intervention studies for primary school children, published in the past decade. Findings indicate a promising range of different ICT-based interventions, most of which demonstrate positive outcomes although wide-ranging outcomes measures and research designs have been used. Only a small proportion of the studies were undertaken in the majority world. There is a great need for further work in this context and in particular in South Africa where reading outcomes are poor. It is clear that ICT-based approaches to reading intervention can lead to improvements in learners’ reading skills, but further research is needed to determine if any of these interventions could be relevant for South African learners or to guide the development of innovative ICT-based interventions responsive to the needs of South African children and educators.

Acknowledgements

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

J.D., M.P. and J.l.R. contributed to the design and implementation of the research, to the analysis of the results and to the writing of the article.

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

The authors confirm that the data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.

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Appendix 1

TABLE 1-A1: Design and participant characteristics of studies included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention scoping review.

TABLE 1-A1 (Continues…): Design and participant characteristics of studies included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention scoping review.

TABLE 2-A1: Characteristics of the interventions included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention literature review papers.

TABLE 2-A1 (Continues…): Characteristics of the interventions included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention literature review papers.

TABLE 3-A1: Outcome measures and results of the studies included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention literature review.

TABLE 3-A1 (Continues…): Outcome measures and results of the studies included in the information and communication technology-based reading intervention literature review.

Original Research

Information and communication technology reading interventions: A scoping review

Jessica Dean, Michelle Pascoe, Jane le Roux

Abstract

Introduction

Methodology

Search strategy

Eligibility criteria

Study selection

Data collection

Results

Overview of ICT-based reading interventions described in the literature

ICT reading interventions conducted in the majority world and their impact on learners’ reading skills

Discussion

Conclusion

Acknowledgements

Competing interests

Authors’ contributions

Ethical considerations

Funding information

Data availability

Disclaimer

References

Appendix 1