Volume 15

SUPPORTING VULNERABLE CHILDREN THROUGH JOLLY PHONICS AND READING DEVELOPMENT IN EARLY YEARS

ANDY, Nsikak Abasi Enefiok, SAM, Isaac Johnson & BLESSING, Uwot Peter

Abstract

Vulnerable children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, often face significant barriers in
accessing quality education, leading to poor academic outcomes and perpetuating cycles of poverty. This study explores the impact of Jolly Phonics, a multisensory phonics approach, on reading development in early years (ages 3-5) among vulnerable children in Nigeria. A pre-test post-test experimental research design was adopted for the study. The sample consisted of 268 nursery pupils from five schools selected from the three senatorial districts of Akwa Ibom State. Two intact classes in each school were selected to form the experimental and control groups, with the Jolly Phonics as the treatment for the experimental groups. Two research questions were formulated to cover reading development (cognitive and linguistic) and to guide the study, and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of 0.05. The data collected were analysed using means, independent t-tests, analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), and the Burt test. The result reveals that Jolly Phonics was effective in enhancing the pupils' reading skills and phonetic awareness among vulnerable children. The experimental group gained from 3-29 months in reading age (3.3 – 4.5) in the Burst test. The t-test analysis shows a significant
difference of 9.42 (df 266) between the post-test mean score of the experimental and control groups. There was also a significant difference of 3.40 (df 82) between the post-mean scores of the experimental groups in the urban and rural schools. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations were made, among which is the need to provide training for more educators and community workers to reach more vulnerable children.

Keywords

Jolly Phonics, Development, Reading Ability, Vulnerable Children, Linguistic

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