Early literacy interventions: Which activities to include? At what age to start? And who will implement them?

Abstract

ResumenThe article utilised data from two intervention studies carried out in low SES preschools in order to address issues in the realm of literacy interventions: Which components are more productive in promoting literacy skills (storybook reading or alphabetic training); at what age should these components be introduced (three or four years old); and who should implement the interventions (MA students or preschool teachers). The studies describe preplanned intensive interventions. The results demonstrated that storybook reading is productive in promoting vocabulary and that alphabetic training is productive in promoting a scope of alphabetic skills. Interestingly enough, a combined programme that encompasses both components, though to a lesser extent, bears the widest range of influence on both alphabetic and language skills. Three year old children benefit as much as or possibly even more from storybook reading and alphabetic skills training than their four year old peers. Both MA students and preschool teachers are efficient implementers. MA students promoted the children's skills more than preschool teachers. Yet, we recommend and discuss the benefits of preschool teachers as implementers.La intervención en la alfabetización temprana: ¿qué actividades se deben incluir? ¿a qué edad se debe comenzar? y ¿quién debe llevarlas a cabo? AbstractEl artículo se basa en los resultados de dos estudios de intervención realizados en escuelas de preescolar con una población infantil de clase socio-económica baja. El objetivo es abordar diversas cuestiones sobre la intervención en el aprendizaje de lectura y escritura, como: qué componentes son más productivos a la hora de promover habilidades de lectura y escritura (lectura de un cuento o práctica del alfabeto); a qué edad deben introducirse estos componentes (tres o cuatro años); y quién debe llevar a cabo la intervención (estudiantes de posgrado o profesorado de preescolar). Los estudios describen un tipo de intervención intensiva y planificada con anterioridad. Los resultados demuestran que la lectura de cuentos desarrolla el vocabulario y que la práctica del alfabeto sirve para desarrollar toda una gama de habilidades relacionadas con el alfabeto. Es interesante resaltar que un programa de intervención combinado que incluya ambos componentes, tiene una influencia más amplia -aunque menos intensa-tanto en las habilidades alfabéticas como en las lingüísticas. Los niños de tres años de edad se benefician tanto o incluso más de la lectura de cuentos y la práctica del alfabeto que sus compañeros de cuatro años. Tanto los estudiantes de posgrado como los profesores de preescolar son implementadores eficaces. Los estudiantes de posgrado promueven las habilidades de los niños más que los profesores de preescolar. Sin embargo, recomendamos y comentamos los beneficios de que sean los profesores los que hagan de implementadores. Palabras clave: Aprendizaje temprano de lectura y escritura, familias pobres, intervención, implementación, preescolar, habilidades alfabéticas, habilid...

Relationship between Maternal and Infant Behaviour during Story Time

“…It is important to remember that the data in the present study was placed in three groups according to the mother´s performance (low, intermediate or high), depending on their reader-narrator skills, however, during the first evaluation all participants showed limited abilities for the promotion of linguistic interactions in their children, and to provide them with informal teachings while reading stories. This first result confirms the information reported by previous researchers (Aram & Besser, 2009;Korat, 2011;Guevara et al, 2007) that indicate how mothers of families with a low socio cultural level may display some limited abilities to establish dialogue and to encourage linguistic and conceptual interactions to allow children´s proper development. When comparing performances and advances of the mothers and children that participated in the present study, we observed some differences between the groups.…”

“…Furthermore, families with lower economic, social and educational levels often show limited literacy practices (Aram & Besser, 2009;Korat, 2011), which translates into behavioural limitations on children. Research studying low socio-cultural Mexican families (Guevara, García, López, Delgado & Hermosillo, 2007;Rugerio & Guevara, 2014) have reported linguistic, pre-academic and conceptual skills deficiencies on preschool students and early first graders, these children may show deficits in word´s meaning, understanding stories, spontaneous expression, spatial-temporal relation, description and narration.…”

The effects of shared storybook reading on word learning: A meta-analysis.

“…Studies that include assessments of general vocabulary routinely involve interventions and longer timescales, (typically several weeks or more, see e.g., Aram & Besser, 2009;Reese & Cox, 1999;Valdez-Menchaca & Whitehurst, 1992). The dearth of meta-analyses addressing word learning from shared reading to date may well be explained by the high level of variability between measurement approaches.…”

“…In practice, some experimental assessments measure growth in the total number of words children comprehend (i.e., general vocabulary), while others measure recall or production of specific target words from the text. Studies that include assessments of general vocabulary routinely involve interventions and longer timescales, (typically several weeks or more, see, e.g., Aram & Besser, 2009; Reese & Cox, 1999; Valdez-Menchaca & Whitehurst, 1992). The dearth of meta-analyses addressing word learning from shared reading to date may well be explained by the high level of variability between measurement approaches.…”

Conventional and Piecewise Growth Modeling Techniques

“…Also, girls often enter preschool with stronger literacy skills (Justice et al 2005; Ready et al 2005). Further, younger children may know less because they have had fewer learning experiences (Aram and Besser 2009; Justice et al 2005; Redford and Gildersleeve-Neumann 2009). At the family level, higher maternal education, two-parent household structures, and high involvement in learning may provide children with more opportunities to build literacy (Aikens and Barbarin 2008; Belsky and Fearon 2004; Hooper et al 2010; Janus and Duku 2007; National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) 2009; Snow, Burns, and Griffin 1998; Suizzo and Stapleton 2007), whereas poverty limits access to learning resources (Bradley et al 2001; Ryan, Fauth, and Brooks-Gunn 2006).…”