An evaluation of the effectiveness of a dialogic reading programme in developing the home literacy environment, language and early literacy skills of preschoolers in low socioeconomic status families

The purpose of this research was to determine the effects of the 12-week and home-based Dialogic Reading Programme on the home literacy environment, language and early literacy skills of Turkish preschoolers from low socioeconomic background. The research was planned as four stages. First, the Dialogic Reading Programme including shared reading, vocabulary items and narrative skills was developed. Second, the Feasibility and Acceptability study was conducted with 8 parents and their preschool aged children. They conducted the first three weeks of the intervention with their children. They conducted five sessions per week and each session lasted 30 minutes. Semi-structured interviews were held with parents at the end of the study and their views on the program were determined. Third, all elements of the Dialogic Reading Program were reviewed according to parental views and the final version of the programme was decided. Fourth, a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial was conducted. Fifty preschoolers and their parents took part in the study. Preschoolers were pre-tested on language and early literacy skills. Then, they were allocated to intervention and control groups randomly. All parents completed the Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire. The parents in the intervention group attended parent training sessions. Then, they conducted the intervention through 12 weeks at home. The intervention included five sessions per week and each session lasted 30 minutes. Parents in the control group did parenting as usual. Children were post-tested on the language and early literacy skills at the end of the study. Parents completed the Home Literacy Environment Questionnaire again. Also, semi-structured interviews were held with parents to determine their views about effects of the intervention on their children’s language and early literacy skills, and to determine the effects of the lockdown process on the implementation of the program and on parent-child interaction and communication. Results showed that children in the intervention group had significant improvements in language and early literacy skills, but this was not the case for the control group. The home literacy environment of the children in the intervention group enriched more significantly than those in the control group. Also, parents reported that the intervention was funny, useful and beneficial for their children and improved their language and early literacy skills. Parents also mostly mentioned that the lockdown positively affected the implementation of the program and the parent-child interaction and communication. In conclusion, the intervention was found effective on both the HLE and language and early literacy skills of Turkish children from low SES, and the COVID-19 pandemic had both positive and negative effects on the implementation of the intervention and the interaction and communication between parents and children. Both quantitative and qualitative results are discussed and considered along with other studies in the literature. Finally, the strengths and limitations of the research and implications and suggestions for further studies are presented.