Effects of Two Shared-Reading Interventions on Emergent Literacy Skills of At-Risk Preschoolers

• DOI: 10.1177/105381519902200406
• Publication Date: 2008-12-29T21:26:54Z
• Authors: CHRISTOPHER J. LO...; JASON L. ANTHONY; BRENLEE G. BLOOMF...; SARAH M. DYER; CORINE S. SAMWEL
• Keywords: 4. Education; 05 social sciences; 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences

The effects of 2 preschool-based shared-reading interventions were evaluated with 95 children, ages 2- to 5-years, from low-income families. Language skills of the children were below age-level as measured by standardized tests. Children were pretested and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) no-treatment control, (b) typical shared-reading condition, and (c) dialogic (interactive) shared-reading condition. For both intervention conditions, undergraduate volunteers read to children in small groups. Following the 6-week intervention, children were posttested on measures of oral language, listening comprehension, and phonological sensitivity. Both interventions produced positive effects. Results favoring dialogic reading were found on a measure of descriptive use of language, whereas results favoring typical shared-reading were found on measures of listening comprehension and alliteration detection.