Effects of Family Literacy Programs : the role of implementation quality

Enhancing literacy skills in children who are at risk of lagging behind in school is an international policy priority, as these skills are of key importance for children’s academic careers. Recognizing the strong and long lasting influence of parents as first educators of their children, family literacy programs aim to promote children’s literacy development by stimulating the home literacy environment, particularly in at-risk families. Previously established disappointing program effects for these families stress the need for insight into how programs are implemented. Starting from a comprehensive framework for measuring i

Level of abstraction in parent–child interactions: the role of activity type and socioeconomic status

Background: Various conversational contexts elicit stimulating parent–child interactions to a different degree. Shared reading, a scripted activity, is reported to elicit most abstract speech compared with other activities (e.g., toy play). Parental socioeconomic status (SES) is another key predictor of abstract talk. Shared reading can attenuate differences in abstract speech between SES groups. In the current study, we compared abstraction of parent–child interactions during nonscripted prompting board and shared reading activities. A prompting board is a complex picture around a certain theme, depicting a scenario (i.e., a picture suggesting a sequence of events), and is meant to elicit child speech. Method: We observed 44 parent–child dyads (87% mothers; child Mage: 63 months) from various socioeconomic backgrounds during prompting board and shared reading discussions and coded interactions for level of abstraction. Results: Prompting boards were found to elicit both more, and more highly abstract speech (particularly inferencing) than shared reading, and children contributed more often to the conversation. Additionally, most speech on the lowest level of abstraction occurred during prompting boards (e.g., labelling and locating). Shared reading elicited more talk on intermediate levels (e.g., describing aspects of objects and characters and making comparisons to the child's life). Moreover, high-SES parents and children produced more highly abstract speech and less labelling and locating compared with low-SES dyads during both activities. Shared reading did not attenuate SES differences in abstract interactions. Conclusions: Prompting boards seem promising for early intervention; however, future intervention studies are needed

Level of Abstraction in Parent-child Interactions: The Role of Activity Type and Socio-economic Status

Background: Various conversational contexts elicit stimulating parent–child interactions to a different degree. Shared reading, a scripted activity, is reported to elicit most abstract speech compared with other activities (e.g., toy play). Parental socioeconomic status (SES) is another key predictor of abstract talk. Shared reading can attenuate differences in abstract speech between SES groups. In the current study, we compared abstraction of parent–child interactions during nonscripted prompting board and shared reading activities. A prompting board is a complex picture around a certain theme, depicting a scenario (i.e., a picture suggesting a sequence of events), and is meant to elicit child speech. Method: We observed 44 parent–child dyads (87% mothers; child Mage: 63 months) from various socioeconomic backgrounds during prompting board and shared reading discussions and coded interactions for level of abstraction. Results: Prompting boards were found to elicit both more, and more highly abstract speech (particularly inferencing) than shared reading, and children contributed more often to the conversation. Additionally, most speech on the lowest level of abstraction occurred during prompting boards (e.g., labelling and locating). Shared reading elicited more talk on intermediate levels (e.g., describing aspects of objects and characters and making comparisons to the child’s life). Moreover, high-SES parents and children produced more highly abstract speech and less labelling and locating compared with low-SES dyads during both activities. Shared reading did not attenuate SES differences in abstract interactions. Conclusions: Prompting boards seem promising for early intervention however, future intervention studies are needed

Effects of a Dutch family literacy program: The role of implementation

It is hypothesized that variability found in the effects of family literacy programs results from differences in implementation by parents. In this study, the implementation and effects of a Dutch program were examined in a sample of 207 kindergarteners (mean age at pre-test: 64 months). No main intervention effects on children’s literacy development were found. The quality of implementation proved to be higher for high-SES and native Dutch (speaking) parents than for low-SES, ethnic-minority parents with other home languages. Parent SES, ethnic-minority status, and home language did not moderate the program effects on child language scores and the program failed to impact targeted parental attributes, namely, the home literacy environment and parent self-efficacy. Finally, children’s development proved unrelated to implementation variables. Our results stress the importance of delivery for adequate implementation