Enhancing Children’s Print and Word Awareness Through Home-Based Parent Intervention

Abstract

This investigation examined the efficacy of a home-based book reading intervention program for enhancing parents’ use of print-referencing behaviors and for stimulating children’s early literacy skills in the areas of print and word awareness. Participants included 28 parents and their typically developing 4-year-old children. Each dyad was assigned to a control or experimental group, using a pretest-posttest control group research design. Pretest measures of parents’ book-reading behaviors and children’s early literacy skills were collected. Each dyad then completed a home-based shared reading program, in which they read two books each week over a 4-week period. Parents in the experimental group were instructed to use nonverbal and verbal print-referencing behaviors in their reading sessions. Control group parents did not receive this instruction. Posttest measures found that parents in the experimental group showed a significant increase in their use of verbal and nonverbal references to print. Results also indicated that parental use of these print-referencing behaviors significantly enhanced their children’s early literacy skills in several areas of print and word awareness. Clinical implications of this intervention are discussed.