An impact assessment of a reading and writing instruction method in a socially vulnerable context

Introduction Educational neuroscience has contributed to a deeper understanding of learning processes by incorporating the sociocultural contexts in which they occur. By using some of the principles that are derived from educational neuroscience, the present study evaluates the impact of an early literacy program in Spanish, the Sophia Method, on preschool and first-grade students from socioeconomically vulnerable backgrounds. Methods The approach adopted integrates the explicit teaching of linguistic, metalinguistic, and graphomotor skills, along with systematic and progressive instruction in reading and writing. A longitudinal quasi-experimental design was employed, featuring an intervention and a comparison group, with two repeated measurements over time. The total sample consisted of 280 Uruguayan students, evenly distributed by sex and drawn from eight schools. The variables assessed are grouped into five dimensions: phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, vocabulary, visomotor skills, and word reading and writing. Results and Discussion Mixed-effects linear models and cumulative-link mixed ordinal logistic models showed higher adjusted posttest performance in the intervention condition across all three educational levels. For some outcome variables, the gains made by students participating in the intervention were higher for those starting at lower pretest performance. The findings contribute to the debate on the role of educational neuroscience in the design of culturally situated early literacy practices aimed at effectively improving educational outcomes, with special emphasis on the effective development of early literacy skills in Spanish.