Paired Reading as a Literacy Intervention for Foster Children

Abstract

The education of children in foster care has long been considered problematic. One contributing factor may be the lack of educational support from key adults in these children's lives. High turnover of school and home placements may preclude the presence of a consistent adult who is actively involved in a foster child's education. Moreover, research suggests that education is sometimes viewed as a low priority by carers in comparison with other aspects of a foster child's life. The aim of the study reported here by Cara Osborne, Julia Alfano and Tanya Winn was to address this issue by directly involving carers in supporting their child's literacy skills through the use of a ‘paired reading’ literacy intervention. Thirty-five carers and children took part in the project over a 16-week period. The results revealed an average improvement in reading age of 12 months during this time, suggesting that the programme offers a constructive way of enhancing foster children's literacy skills. Feedback from carers supported this view and suggested that the impact of the project may extend beyond the realm of literacy per se, resulting in improvements in confidence and motivation as well as reading ability.

Paired Reading for foster children: results from a Swedish replication of an English literacy intervention

“…Adding the presumed time effect (0.33 years ¼ 4 months) we get figures that correspond to total gains in reading age during the trial: 11.3 and 11.0 months. This is very similar to the result found in the UK Paired Reading trial (Osborne, Alfano and Winn, 2010;. The effect sizes were 0.38 and 0.27, well above the limit for 'substantial improvement' according to the US What Works Clearinghouse (2008) recommendations.…”

“…We replicated a UK literacy intervention (Osborne, Alfano and Winn, 2010; targeting children in foster care age 8-12, with a larger sample (n ¼ 81) and a wider range of follow-up data compared to the UK study. These data included information collected each week on programme compliance.…”

Dialogic literary gatherings and out‐of‐home child care: Creation of new meanings through classic literature

“…Research has demonstrated that paired reading improves the literacy skills of children in foster care and that this strategy renders the act of reading highly enjoyable for boys and girls (Forsman, 2015;Osborne, Alfano, & Winn, 2013). Paired reading has historically been defined as a procedure to accelerate reading based on different stages.…”

Foster carers' experiences of a paired reading literacy intervention with looked‐after children

“…Previous studies indicate that paired reading offers a constructive way of improving looked-after children's literacy skills (Osborne et al 2010;Vinnerljung et al 2014). However, these studies provide little insight into the process of the intervention, i.e.…”

“…Fortunately, some promising interventions exist (Forsman & Vinnerljung 2012;Liabo et al 2013). Studies have reported successful outcomes when involving foster carers in a paired reading intervention, both in a British (Osborne et al 2010) and a Swedish trial .…”