Despite the importance of alphabet knowledge for learning to read in English, we continue to have a limited understanding of children's alphabet knowledge learning and how to best support such learning. In this pretest-posttest within-subjects experimental study (n = 29), we examined alphabet learning as a function of lessons tailored to individual children's alphabet learning needs and as a function of letter difficulty. Children received instruction on four individually selected target letters and no instruction on four control letters; target and control letters were equated for letter difficulty. Results showed that children were more likely to learn target letters than control letters. Additionally, letter difficulty predicted children's learning of uppercase and lowercase letter names but not their learning of letter sounds. Findings partially substantiate the role of letter difficulty in alphabet learning and support continued research on effective practices for differentiating alphabet instruction to meet individual alphabet learning needs.

尽管字母知识对于学习英语阅读很重要，但我们对儿童的字母知识学习以及如何最好地支持这种学习仍然知之甚少。在这个前测后测的受试者内实验研究中（n = 29），我们将字母学习作为针对个别儿童的字母学习需求量身定制的课程的函数以及作为字母难度的函数。孩子们接受了四个单独选择的目标字母的指导，没有四个控制字母的指导；目标字母和控制字母等同于字母难度。结果表明，与控制字母相比，儿童更容易学习目标字母。此外，字母难度预测儿童对大写和小写字母名称的学习，而不是他们对字母发音的学习。研究结果部分证实了字母难度在字母学习中的作用，并支持继续研究区分字母教学以满足个人字母学习需求的有效实践。