ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Educ.
Sec. Psychology in Education
This article is part of the Research TopicLearning, skill development and motivationView all articles
Reading: exploring the reading skill after the second schoolyear in Icelandic children
Provisionally accepted
- 1Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
- 2Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet Norwegian Biopolymer Laboratory, Trondheim, Norway
- 3Haskoli Islands, Reykjavík, Iceland
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The main aim of this study was to investigate whether there are gender differences in children's reading ability at the end of their second year of primary school in Iceland (N=545; 260 girls, 285 boys, mean age: 7.7 years, SD=0.39). A second aim was to compare reading outcomes between two groups of students: 47 children in Vestmannaeyjar who participated in the Ignition project using the READ approach (the experimental group), and 498 children from other schools across Iceland who followed the standard curriculum (the control group). All children were assessed in May 2023 using the LÆS test, which measures both reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The results showed no significant differences between boys and girls. However, there was a large and statistically significant difference between the two groups. In Vestmannaeyjar, 83% of students were able to read and understand the text, compared with only 52% of students in the control group. These findings suggest that introducing letter–sound correspondences early in the first year of school, as done in the READ approach, can provide a strong foundation for decoding and later reading development. The READ method combines a structured phonics programme with principles from cognitive science, including deliberate practice, appropriately challenging tasks, and the promotion of learning flow.
Keywords: gender, Letter-sound knowledge, Longitudinal, Phonics, reading
Received: 13 Jan 2026; Accepted: 11 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Sigmundsson, Thorsdottir and Hjaltalin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Hermundur Sigmundsson
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