This Campbell systematic review assesses the effectiveness of parental, familial, and community support for children's literacy development in developing countries. The review summarises findings from 13 studies, of which 10 were used for meta‐analysis.
Many models are widely used in low‐ and middle‐income countries. These include the provision of libraries (standing or mobile) in many countries including Zimbabwe, Kenya, India and Venezuela; local‐language publishing in, for example, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, and Zambia; literacy instruction outside schools including the teaching of literacy through religious instruction; the distribution e‐readers in countries such as Ghana and Uganda; educational TV and radio; and supporting community members to educate children.
There is no rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of most of the models being used by governments and NGOs around the world. The exceptions are educational TV and radio, and supporting community members to educate children.
Overall, interventions for parent training and of child‐to‐child tutoring are not effective. Eight out of nine reported outcomes show no significant effects. However, there is considerable variation in the findings, so some approaches may be effective in some contexts.
Educational television appears to improve literacy with frequent viewing, i.e. three to five times a week, over several months.
Abstract
BACKGROUNDFor a majority of the world's children, despite substantial increases in primary school enrollment, academic learning is neither occurring at expected rates nor supplying the basic foundational skills necessary to succeed in the 21st century. The significant lag in academic achievement tells us that simply making formal education available does not fully meet children's needs for literacy development. Globally, many interventions are used to support children's literacy development through channels outside of the formal education system, in children's homes or communities. However, there is a lack of information regarding the effectiveness of these interventions.
OBJECTIVESThe objective of this systematic review was to examine the effectiveness of parental, familial, and community support for children's literacy development in developing countries. This review provides information about the contextual influences of parental, familial, and community support on children's literacy development skills through the use of interventions that target those influences.We explored the following questions:
What models of reading and literacy learning programs have been implemented in homes and communities in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMICs)?
What models of reading and literacy learning programs implemented in homes and communities in LMICs have empirical evidence regarding their level of effectiveness?
How effective are these models in improving children's literacy outcomes?
SEARCH METHODSSearches for academic literature were conducted in 15 online databases from across the disciplines of anthropology, economics, education, inter...
