Early literacy and child wellbeing: Exploring the efficacy of a home-based literacy intervention on children’s foundational literacy skills

Abstract

This paper reports on findings from a doctoral study that explored the efficacy of a home-based literacy intervention in advancing preschool children’s foundational literacy skills. Two key cognitive skills critical for early literacy success were examined in particular, those being phonological awareness, and elements of oral language, including vocabulary knowledge, which is the specific skill discussed in this paper. The intervention consisted of two main areas of focus – one, named Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR), concentrated on stimulating children’s oral language skills, and the other, called Stimulating Sound Sensitivity (SSS), aimed to generate shifts in children’s phonological awareness abilities. Data sets were gathered with eight children and their families over a twelve-week period, which corresponded with the duration of the intervention. A final set of data was collected six months after the intervention ceased. The study employed a crossover design, where four children and their families participated in the RRR component of the intervention, which ran for six weeks, followed by the SSS portion of the intervention. The remaining four children participated in the same parts of the intervention but in reverse order of delivery. The crossover approach established a control in the study, and allowed the effects of each part of the intervention on the children’s early literacy skills to be more clearly revealed. This paper reports on two children – one from each cohort – whose results are evidence of the efficacy of the intervention in advancing key aspects of children’s foundational literacy skills. Key Findings The children who participated in the RRR component of the intervention first showed improvements in vocabulary knowledge mid-intervention. Conversely, the children who participated in the SSS component first made gains in their phonological awareness skills before the other cohort of children did. These findings have implications for early childhood educators and families concerning the strategies adopted by these stakeholders which aim to foster strong cognitive skills critical for literacy success.

The positive role of parents and family in home-based literacy: An Integrative Review

“…Parent-based reading interventions can reduce educational and gender disparities in writing skills seen early in school (Andersen et al, 2022). Home-based literacy also significantly impacts the cognitive skills children need to support them in early literacy success (Derby et al, 2022). Home-based and centre-based family involvement predicted early development of emergent numeracy, emergent literacy, social-emotional skills, and motor skills, even after controlling for various individual and contextual variables.…”

“…Homebased literacy refers to educational activities at home with a literacy learning focus. Literacy is crucial in education because it lays the groundwork for lifelong learning (Derby et al, 2022). Children can learn a variety of things by doing their homework at home, including their first understanding of literacy (Breit-Smith et al, 2010;Huntsinger et al, 2016;Kumpulainen, Kristiina and Gillen, J, 2017;Storch, S., & Whitehurst, G., 2002).…”

Kaiako perspectives on professional learning and development in structured literacy in Māori-medium settings: A case study

“…Learning to read and write in two languages can be time consuming and challenging, however there is evidence to suggest that once a student has mastered the processes for reading in one language, those skills can then be applied to learning almost any other language -a principle called language interdependence (Derby, 2022;May et al, 2006). Biliterate children (students learning to read and write in te reo Māori and English) usually learn te reo Māori as their second language.…”

Exploring the Effectiveness and Impacts of Teaching Intervention in Chinese Learning

“…Effective pedagogical knowledge for teacher development is necessary and crucial. Previous research demonstrated that phonological awareness was one of the essential skills in literacy acquisition (Derby et al, 2022;Xue, 2021;Ye et al, 2021). Phonological awareness is important in learning both alphabetic languages and morphem-syllabic languages such as Chinese (Juan et al, 2017;Li et al, 2002).…”