Effects of two shared-reading interventions on emergent literacy skills ofat-risk preschoolers

The effects of 2 preschool-based shared-reading interventions were evaluate d with 95 children, ages 2- to 5-years, from low-income families. Language skills of the children were below age-level as measured by standardized tes ts. Children were pretested and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: (a) no-treatment control, (b) typical shared-reading condition, and (c) dialog ic (interactive) shared-reading condition. For both intervention conditions , undergraduate volunteers read to children in small groups. Following the 6-week intervention, children were posttested on measures of oral language, listening comprehension, and phonological sensitivity. Both interventions produced positive effects. Results favoring dialogic reading were found on a measure of descriptive use of language, whereas results favoring typical shared-reading were found on measures of listening comprehension and allite ration detection.