Enhancing children's print and word awareness through home-based parent intervention

This investigation examined the efficacy of a home-based book reading inter vention program for enhancing parents' use of print-referencing behaviors a nd for stimulating children's early literacy skills in the areas of print a nd word awareness. Participants included 28 parents and their typically dev eloping 4-year-old children. Each dyad was assigned to a control or experim ental group, using a pretest-posttest control group research design. Pretes t measures of parents' book-reading behaviors and children's early literacy skills were collected. Each dyad then completed a home-based shared readin g program, in which they read two books each week over a 4-week period. Par ents in the experimental group were instructed to use nonverbal and verbal print-referencing behaviors in their reading sessions. Control group parent s did not receive this instruction. Posttest measures found that parents in the experimental group showed a significant increase in their use of verba l and nonverbal references to print. Results also indicated that parental u se of these print-referencing behaviors significantly enhanced their childr en's early literacy skills in several areas of print and word awareness. Cl inical implications of this intervention are discussed.