Barker, T., & Torgesen, J. (1995). An evaluation of computer-assisted instruction in phonological awareness with below average readers. J. Educational Computing Research, 13, 89-103. Description of subjects   Fifty-four elementary students participated in this study. The subjects scored in the 40th percentile or lower on the Word Identification subtest from the Woodcock-Johnson Mastery Test and below the 50th percentile on the Sound Categorization subtest (p. 91). The students ages ranged from six years two months to seven years eight months. Description of methodology   Pretest measures included the Word Identification subtest from the Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Test and the Sound Categorization subtest, Undersea Challenge, Sound Categorization, Phoneme Elision Task, Production Test of Segmenting, Production Test of Blending, Word Analysis subtest from the Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Test, Experimental Non-Word Reading, Word Identification subtest from the Woodcock-Johnson Reading Mastery Test, Analog Reading task, and Vocabulary from Stanford Binet IV-Revised. The children were randomly assigned to three groups after the pretesting. The three conditions included the phonological awareness group, phonological decoding training control, and the attentional control group.   The computer programs that were used for the phonological awareness instructional program were DaisyQuest and Daisy's Castle. DaisyQuest consisted of four instructional activities. The theme of the program focused on Daisy, a friendly dragon. When the child completes a certain level, he/she receives a clue where Daisy is hiding. Daisy's Castle is a follow-up program, which includes three instructional activities. The theme of this program is concentrated on finding Daisy's lost eggs. The child receives clues when he/she masters a certain level.   DaisyQuest and Daisy's Castle are interactive programs that present material via both synthetic and digitized speech. Daisy Quest teaches the following skills: 1) recognizing words that rhyme; 2-4) recognizing words that have the same beginning, middle, and ending sounds (with each skill addressed in a separate instructional activity); while Daisy's Castle teaches these additional skills: 1) recognizing words that can be formed from a series of phonemes presented as onset and rhyme; 2) recognizing words that can be formed from a series of separately presented phonemes; 3) counting the number of sounds in words (p. 94). Tutorials are available for each skill.  The phonological decoding program consisted of the Hint and Hunt I program. This was created to expose students to basic short vowel sounds and allow them to practice identifying words containing the short vowel sounds. The attentional control programs consisted of math-oriented software programs, such as Alien Addition, Math Rabbit, and Math Blaster   The training took place in the school psychologist's office. Groups of three to four students received training sessions that lasted for twenty-five minutes, four times a week. Students worked independently on their individual programs according to the condition they were assigned. Post-tests were administered after the training was completed. Summary of findings  Results from this study demonstrated that the training provided by the DaisyQuest and Daisy's Castle programs significantly increased the children's ability to perform computer presented phonological awareness tasks, as well as orally presented tasks of phoneme analysis. This study was limited in its ability to evaluate the long-term impact of both direct phonological awareness training provided by the DaisyQuest program and direct instruction in phonological decoding provided by the Hint and Hunt I program. However, it did provide valuable information concerning the use of computer-assisted instruction to affect the phonological skills of poor readers (p. 101). Effective Instructional Practice Criteria Level 1 Yes 1 The practice has a clearly stated philosophy and outcome. Yes 2 The target population is well-defined. Yes 3 The activities are defined and based on theory or appropriate research. No 4 The practice has considered involvement of parents, business, or community representatives, if appropriate. Yes 5 The practice has replicable materials. Yes 6 Anticipated outcomes of implementation are well-defined. Yes 7 The practice contains a set of procedures that can be replicated. Yes 8 There are indicators/evidence of improved student outcomes. No 9 There is a plan for providing follow-up activities. No 10 There is a plan to evaluate practice effectiveness. Yes 11 The practice may be evaluated on stated outcomes or objectives. Yes 12 The practice supports the Sunshine State Standards or other Florida accountability efforts.