Enhancing Children’s Print and Word Awareness Through Home-Based Parent Intervention

TLDR

The study tested whether a home‑based shared‑reading program could increase parents’ print‑referencing behaviors and improve 4‑year‑old children’s print and word awareness. Twenty‑eight parent‑child dyads were randomly assigned to a control or experimental group in a pre‑test/post‑test design; over four weeks they read two books weekly, with experimental parents instructed to use verbal and nonverbal print‑referencing while controls received no such instruction. After the intervention, experimental parents increased their print‑referencing behaviors, and this increase was associated with significant gains in their children’s print and word awareness.

Abstract

This investigation examined the efficacy of a home-based book reading intervention program for enhancing parents’ use of print-referencing behaviors and for stimulating children’s early literacy skills in the areas of print and word awareness. Participants included 28 parents and their typically developing 4-year-old children. Each dyad was assigned to a control or experimental group, using a pretest-posttest control group research design. Pretest measures of parents’ book-reading behaviors and children’s early literacy skills were collected. Each dyad then completed a home-based shared reading program, in which they read two books each week over a 4-week period. Parents in the experimental group were instructed to use nonverbal and verbal print-referencing behaviors in their reading sessions. Control group parents did not receive this instruction. Posttest measures found that parents in the experimental group showed a significant increase in their use of verbal and nonverbal references to print. Results also indicated that parental use of these print-referencing behaviors significantly enhanced their children’s early literacy skills in several areas of print and word awareness. Clinical implications of this intervention are discussed.