Literacy Intervention Program Research Articles

Troubling teacher talk: The challenge of changing classroom discourse patterns

The middle years are a crucial stage of schooling where the range in student achievement widens and progress for some students slows significantly (Cairney, Buchanan, Sproats & Lowe 1998, Hill & Russell 1999). Despite moves towards middle school reform and improved literacy standards, there remains a gap in literacy provision for young adolescent learners, particularly those defined as ‘educationally disadvantaged’ or ‘at risk’ (DEETYA 1998, Masters & Forster 1997). Many literacy intervention programs offered to underachieving adolescents fail to articulate to mainstream curriculum and assessment practices, or to scaffold students adequately in meeting the literacy demands of an increasingly abstract and specialised curriculum (Christie 1990, Unsworth 2001). These often lead to a differentiated and limited curriculum which may compound educational disadvantage and maintain stratified outcomes. This article investigates a mainstream and intervention literacy pedagogy designed to improve the outcomes of disadvantages learners while at the same time accelerating the progress of all students in the middle years.

Hispanic Families as Facilitators of Their Children's Literacy Development

Hispanic families provide children with literacy-rich environments, experiences, and interactions. Studies were reviewed to identify the Hispanic families' literacy practices, which were influenced by the families' educational levels, language, beliefs, and cultural practices. Family members can reinforce the children's literacy learning when they are presented with literacy experiences in a myriad of settings and contexts. The Hispanic family's support, school environments, school challenges, literacy intervention programs, and educational implications are discussed.

Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions

The present study examined the narrative styles of Spanish-speaking Peruvian and English-speaking U.S. American, college-educated mothers as they shared a wordless book with their three-year old children. Results show two distinct book reading narrative styles: Storytellers, who act as the sole narrator of an engaging story with minimal child participation, and storybuilders, who co-construct the story with their young children. The two maternal styles are discussed in relation to possible differences in conceptions of oral narrative and of the roles narrator and audience play in the construction of a story. Results of the present study have implications for literacy intervention programs in culturally diverse populations.

Is the phab really fab? the utility of the phonological assessment battery in predicting gains made by older low-progress readers following two terms of intensive literacy instruction

Dyslexic readers are typically regarded as being treatment resistant when exposed to reading intervention. The aim of this study was to determine the practical utility of employing an instrument such as the phonological assessment battery (PhAB) as a means of identifying dyslexic (with poor phonological processing skills) from non-dyslexic older low-progress readers. A sample of 22 older low-progress readers was assessed on the PhAB and also on a variety of reading and spelling measures prior to receiving and following an intensive, systematic, skills-based literacy intervention program for two terms. The group as a whole made substantial and significant mean gains on all reading and spelling measures but there were no appreciable differences in gain between those students identified as dyslexic and those who were not. Moreover, none of the PhAB subtest scores predicted size of gains. The intensive literacy instruction, however, appeared to improve performance on several subscales of the PhAB. These results provide evidence of the need for intensive literacy remediation for all low-progress readers, regardless of their categorisation, and lend support to those who advocate a non-categorical approach to addressing reading disability. Identifying dyslexic readers may not be helpful and teaching phonological awareness as a separate component may not be necessary to meet the needs of older low-progress readers.

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Emergent literacy intervention for vulnerable preschoolers: relative effects of two approaches.

This study determined the relative efficacy of an experimental explicit emergent literacy intervention program for preschoolers experiencing multiple risk factors. Using an alternating treatment research design, children completed two 6-week waves of intervention in small groups; one wave featured the experimental explicit intervention program, whereas the other featured a comparison program. Emergent literacy assessment was conducted at pretest and at the end of each wave. Results indicated significant widespread gains in emergent literacy knowledge over the entire 12-week intervention program; growth was significantly greater during the experimental explicit intervention program compared to the comparison program. An examination of individual differences and intervention outcome showed oral language skills and literacy orientation to predict emergent literacy performance at the end of the program.

Developing Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Literacy Interventions in a Supported Employment Setting

This article describes an integrated augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) and literacy intervention program developed for five adults with autism in a supported employment facility. Specific assessment and intervention strategies as well as general outcomes of the program are discussed. Three detailed case studies describe approaches used with project participants who had emerging, beginning, and more advanced levels of communication and literacy skill.

Reaching for the stars: SLPs shine on literacy teams.

Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) who work with school-age children have the opportunity to contribute to the literacy development of specific students as well as the literacy instruction and intervention programs in their district. These efforts are made in collaboration with other professionals and parents and may be referred to as participation on literacy teams. This article describes successful literacy teams in elementary schools including the variety of possible members as well as common characteristics of successful literacy teams. We describe how SLPs participate by developing collegial relationships with their team, using best practices for literacy, and supporting children as they progress in the general curriculum. Finally, we discuss some strategies for SLPs to take stock of their own literacy team participation, identify new goals, and map out a plan to reach new heights in literacy as integral members of literacy teams.

Does Rainbow Repeated Reading Add Value to an Intensive Literacy Intervention Program for Low-progress Readers? An experimental evaluation

Forty low-progress readers in Years 2 to 7 attending an intensive literacy intervention program, conducted on two separate sites, were randomly allocated to two treatment conditions in order to determine the effect of supplementing the program with commercially produced repeated reading materials (the Rainbow Reading Program). The control group experienced the regular form of the literacy program, which includes within it a form of repeated reading, while the experimental group experienced the supplemented literacy program incorporating repeated listening of tape-recorded versions of the text the student is required to read. All students were tested on two measures of reading performance immediately prior to and immediately following almost a term (9 weeks) of daily instruction. Analyses of covariance of post-test reading scores, in which pre-test scores were covaried, revealed no differences between the two groups on either of the two reading tests, indicating that the supplementary program did not demonstrate enhanced efficacy.

At‐risk readers developing expertise in register switching: evidence from cohesion analysis

Register refers to the variety of language that is appropriate for a particular situational context. This study examines young children’s development of register switching expertise as they become independent readers. Participants were 17 first graders identified by their classroom teachers as at‐risk readers and admitted into an early literacy intervention program called Reading Recovery. At both the beginning and end of Reading Recovery, each child was asked to share a story about a personally relevant topic in a face‐to‐face, conversational context and then dictate that same oral tale as an autonomous/written text intended for a reader audience. The 68 texts (34 oral and 34 written) were analysed for their use of register‐appropriate cohesive linguistic choices. It was found that as these at‐risk children grew from emergent to independent, strategic readers, they were concurrently developing skills in constructing written register texts by recontextualising the cohesion language patterns in their oral register texts. It is suggested that developing expertise in register switching may compose part of the process of learning to read and write. This finding is discussed in the light of relevant literacy and educational research.

A play foundation for family literacy

This study was designed to determine the potential effects of a family literacy intervention program. The treatment was a five-month intervention with 15 families as they engaged in playful explorations with literacy materials, first in workshops and later in their homes. The program was designed to help families enhance the play context at home to offer children many opportunities to explore literacy-related objects through social interaction. Their selection of literacy-play materials encouraged family–child interactions through reading and through playfully using concrete literacy objects from the home environment. Strategies and activities offered to parents were those that would integrate play and literacy. Parents demonstrated the strategies and activities they learned in the workshops and used in their homes.

Literacy Socialization in the Homes of Preschool Children

For parents of children with speech-language impairments, the assumption that their children will become literate is a natural, but not always fulfilled, expectation. This study explored the literacy experiences reported to be available in the homes of three groups of preschool children. Surveys were sent to the families of children aged 3 to 5 years who had (a) a speech-language impairment, (b) a disability other than speech-language impairment, and (c) no disability or delay. Respondents described the literacy-related materials and activities that were made available to the children at home. Respondents also described the children’s and adult’s reading and writing behaviors at home. Despite similarities in socioeconomic status, age, access to materials, and parental expectations for the children’s literacy abilities at age 21, the results suggested significantly different activities and interactions with print for the group of children with speech-language impairments. Implications for the design of early literacy and language intervention programs are discussed. The importance of considering the child’s literacy experiences at home in the assessment of the child’s language and literacy needs is also highlighted.

Home and family influences on motivations for reading

This article reviews the growing literature on home and family influences on children's motivations for reading. Children whose early encounters with literacy are enjoyable are more likely to develop a predisposition to read frequently and broadly in subsequent years. Young children's self-initiated interactions with print at home are important behavioral indexes of emerging motivations for reading. Shared storybook reading plays an important role in promoting reading motivations; when the socioemotional climate is positive, children are more interested in reading and more likely to view it as enjoyable. The beliefs held by children's parents about the purposes of reading and how children learn to read relate to children's motivations for reading. Parents who believe that reading is a source of entertainment have children with more positive views about reading than do parents who emphasize the skills aspect of reading development. These findings have important implications for offering guidance to parents and for the development of family literacy intervention programs.

Enhancing intermediate dyslexic learners' literacy skills: a Free State community project

This empirical paper argues that intermediate dyslexic learners’ literacy skills can be enhanced through a community-based service learning project. Hence, this research is grounded and positioned within Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory and the theories of experiential education, as described by Dewey and Kolb. In collaboration with eight postgraduate students in support teaching, this study developed a literacy intervention programme for intermediate dyslexic learners and implemented this programme for a period of nine months, at a special school for learning-impaired learners in the Free State province of South Africa. The literacy intervention programme was based on Ron Davis’ learning strategies, ie a multi-sensory programme focusing on visual, kinaesthetic and cognitive development strategies by using dyslexic learners’ creativity. It was hypothesised that the reading and spelling performance of intermediate dyslexic learners in the experimental group (N=18) would be significantly better than that of intermediate dyslexic learners in the control group (N=18) who were not exposed to the literacy intervention programme. Positive outcome goals of this community-based service learning project included the development of positive attitudes towards community engagement, students realising their social responsibility, the gaining of insights into and understanding of social and educational issues, and finally the opportunity to develop lifelong learning and problem-solving skills.