OUTCOMES OF AN EMERGENT LITERACY INTERVENTION IN HEAD-START

Classrooms of 4-year-olds attending Head Start were randomly assigned to an intervention condition, involving an add-on emergent literacy cu rriculum, or a control condition, involving the regular Head Start cur riculum. Children in the intervention condition experienced interactiv e book reading at home and in the classroom as well as a classroom-bas ed sound and letter awareness program. Children were pretested and pos ttested on standardized tests of language, writing, linguistic awarene ss, and print concepts. Effects of the intervention were significant a cross all children in the domains of writing and print concepts. Effec ts on language were large but only for those children whose primary ca regivers had been actively involved in the at-home component of the pr ogram. One linguistic awareness subtest, involving the ability to iden tify the first letter and first sound of words, showed significant eff ects.