Does British research support claims about the benefits of parents hearing their children read regularly at home? A closer look at the evidence from three key studies

ABSTRACT

It is widely believed that parents regularly hearing their children read at home is associated with higher reading scores on standardized tests. While research into parents using specific teaching techniques such as paired reading may be fairly conclusive in terms of short‐term gains in reading age it is unclear whether the available evidence from programmes which attempt to capitalize on parents’ spontaneous use of tutorial skills is consistent with this claim. It could be that opinions concerning the value of this work have taken on a life of their own and grown in strength and breadth as a result of sociopolitical factors instead of from defensible, consistent, scientific evidence regarding its worth. Contrary to what is commonly assumed there is a paucity of hard evidence on this issue emanating from studies conducted within the United Kingdom, and the few studies which have sought to shed light on it have come up with contradictory findings. A question that needs addressing then is how credible is that evidence. To answer this question this article looks critically at three key British studies — one highly influential study evidencing for the alleged benefits and the other two against. This fresh look at existing data reveals that (a) the hitherto persuasive evidence of the Haringey experiment showing favourable outcomes is found wanting and (b) the evidence from two frequently cited studies showing no effects [one experimental (Hannon, 1987) and the other correlational (Tizard et al., 1988)] is equally unconvincing.

Keywords:

• reading
• parental involvement
• home and school
• literacy
• community education
• intervening in disadvantage

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Flora J. Macleod

Flora Macleod is a Lecturer in Education at the School of Education, University of Exeter.