Abstract
Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster broad oral language skills in preschoolers (N = 69; Mean age = 5.5, SD = 4 months) coming from low-SES families. Moreover, it was analyzed whether children’s initial vocabulary mediates the intervention’s responsiveness. Results have shown that children in treatment group obtained greater gains than children in control group in almost all intervention-based measures. There is also some evidence for the generalizability of the intervention to other skills not directly trained during the intervention. Moreover, it was found that children’s initial vocabulary mediates the intervention’s responsiveness showing that children with high vocabulary made greater gains in higher-level components of language comprehension, whereas children with low vocabulary made higher gains in vocabulary. Taken together, our findings suggest that a relatively brief, but quite intensive narrative-based intervention, may produce improvements on broad oral language skills in preschoolers from low-SES backgrounds.
Highlights
The Emergent literacy approach conceptualizes the acquisition of literacy as a developmental continuum with its origins early in the life of a child [1]
In this study, conducted with an emergent literacy approach [1], assuming a long-term perspective oriented to facilitate school readiness and prevent later difficulties with reading comprehension for preschoolers coming from low SES families, we developed and analyzed feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based group intervention (8 weeks) aimed to foster broad oral language skills
This study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) Is this brief narrative-based group intervention combining shared book reading, vocabulary instruction and exercises on different narrative skill components, effective in fostering broad oral language skills in preschoolers coming from low-SES families? Do children take part in the intervention improved their oral language skills more than children in the control group?
Summary
The Emergent literacy approach conceptualizes the acquisition of literacy as a developmental continuum with its origins early in the life of a child [1]. Emergent literacy skills established in preschool, namely phonological awareness, vocabulary and narrative skills lay an important foundation for later reading comprehension [3]. These broad language skills serve as a bridge between oral and written language [4]; children who enter school with inadequate oral language skills face significant challenges learning to read and comprehending what they hear and read [5]. Attention to broad oral language skills during preschool years is imperative for the prevention of reading difficulties and academic failure [8,9]. Without early high-quality systematic language intervention, early children’s language difficulties may persist in elementary school and lead to reading difficulties and academic failure [10]
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