A shared reading intervention with parents to enhance young children's early literacy skills

Abstract

A pragmatic randomised controlled trial was used to investigate the effects of two forms of shared reading on children's language and literacy skills. Parents of 80 children in the preparatory year of school participated in an eight-week home reading intervention. Families were assigned to one of three groups: dialogic reading (DR), dialogic reading with the addition of print referencing (DR + PR), or an attention-matched control group. Analyses of change from pre- to post-intervention showed significant effects for the DR and DP+PR groups compared to the control group on three of the six emergent literacy measures: expressive language, rhyme, and concepts about print. At three-month follow-up assessment, the two intervention groups maintained significantly better performance on the measure of concepts about print only. These findings illustrate the potential of a brief home-based intervention for promoting children's emergent literacy.

Keywords:

• emergent literacy intervention
• dialogic reading
• print referencing
• shared reading
• pragmatic randomised control trial

Notes on contributors

Susan S.H. Sim, Dr, is a registered educational psychologist who completed her doctoral studies in the Faculty of Education at Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests are in children's literacy development, including children's reading interest and motivation, as well as on the value of shared reading as a means through which parents and teachers can support children's emergent literacy skills.

Donna Berthelsen, Dr, is an adjunct professor in the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology. Her research interests focus on children's wellbeing and learning outcomes in families, schools, and early education contexts. She is the education design team leader in Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children.

Susan Walker, Dr, is an associate professor within the School of Early Childhood at Queensland University of Technology. Her research foci include epistemic beliefs and teachers' practice; early childhood social development; child outcomes in relation to inclusive early childhood education programs; early intervention and the transition to school; and the development of children's moral values.

Jan M. Nicholson, PhD, is the research director of the Parenting Research Centre in Melbourne, Australia, with adjunct/honorary positions at the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and Queensland University of Technology. A psychologist by background, with post-doctoral public health training, her expertise is parenting and family influences on child development, with a particular interest in the influences of social inequalities and families' work and community environments.

Ruth Fielding-Barnsley, associate professor, has been an active researcher for the past thirty years in the areas of home literacy and teacher knowledge of metalinguistics. Ruth is currently employed at The University of Tasmania where she is developing apps to teach the concepts of phonics and phonological awareness.