Effects of a summer school-readiness programme on measures of literacy and behaviour growth: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

Young children enter kindergarten with varying levels of readiness and abilities to learn. One factor that contributes to lower levels of school readiness is poverty. One timely, cost-effective, and feasible strategy to boost school readiness, regardless of exposure to high-quality preschool is to leverage the summer months prior to kindergarten entry and provide comprehensive, evidence-based programming immediately before the school year begins. The current study implemented a community-based summer programme targeted at improving school readiness for 25 four- and five-year-old children in a low-income community. Across the 9-week study, children participated in two types of early literacy activities and the Incredible Years social/emotional learning curriculum. Results indicate that participants demonstrated significant growth across three early literacy skills and were rated as overall stable regarding their behaviour across the summer. These results are discussed along with implications and future directions in this line of research.

KEYWORDS:

• Special education
• teacher preparation
• early childhood education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Ragan H. McLeod is in the Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities, University of Alabama.

Sunyoung Kim was formerly in the Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities, University of Alabama. She is now in the Department of Special Education, University of Illinois at Chicago.

Sara Tomek is in the Department of Educational Research, University of Alabama.

Sara McDaniel is in the Department of Special Education and Multiple Abilities, University of Alabama.

ORCID

Ragan McLeod http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8099-1742

Sunyoung Kim http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7376-164X

Sara McDaniel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5387-3452