Which Consonant Strategy Works Better for Beginning Readers?

In this Developmental Psychology article, three researchers from the University of Iowa/Des Moines report that first graders who worked with words that have variable consonant sounds (bait, sad, hair, gap) performed better than students who worked with words with the same consonants (maid, mad, paid, pad). The first group outperformed the second in reading unfamiliar and nonsense words and in applying their skills to new tasks. 

“Statistical Learning in Reading: Variability in Irrelevant Letters Helps Children Learn Phonics Skills” by Keith Apfelbaum, Eliot Hazeltine, and Bob McMurray in Developmental Psychology, August 2012, http://bit.ly/Rd102n, spotted in Education Week, Nov. 14, 2012 (Vol. 32, #12, p. 5)

From the Marshall Memo #462