THE EFFECTS OF A COMMUNITY-BASED LITERACY PROGRAM ON YOUNG CHILDRENS LANGUAGE AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT

Effect of a community-based literacy program on 1-, 2-, and 3-year-old children's language and conceptual development were assessed. Univers ity students were trained to teach Head Start parents effective method s for reading to their children. Families were randomly assigned to re ceive 18, 3, or 0 instructional visits. Results indicated that parents in the 18-instructional-visit program increased their participation i n appropriate literacy behaviors such as reading to their children, te aching concepts to their children, and using the library, more than pa rents in the 0-instructional-visit groups. Children in the 18-instruct ional-visit program showed greater gains in language and conceptual de velopment than children in the 0-instructional-visit group. Few differ ences were found between children in the 3-visit and 0-instructional-v isit groups. Thus, only a high-intensity community-based intervention designed to train parents was effective in increasing emergent literac y in low-income ethnic children.