Mothers Teaching their Children the Hebrew Writing System: The Effects on Children’s Early Writing and Reading Skills

The chapter presents two studies that longitudinally assessed the efficacy of home-based literacy interventions focusing on writing, in promoting preschool children’s writing and reading skills. Within both studies, mothers gained theoretical knowledge about early literacy. They learned how to efficiently support their children’s early writing in Hebrew and use everyday activities to encourage their children to go through the process of spelling words. Children and mothers practiced short, guided, pre-planned activities focusing on writing, 3–4 times a week. The two studies differed in the audience that they approached and the intensity of the guidance. In the first study, participants were mothers from a low SES and they were guided weekly on an individual basis in their homes (8-weeks intervention). In the second, parents were from a middle SES and they were guided in four group meetings over 12 weeks. In both studies, the intervention significantly promoted children’s spelling. At the end of the programs and at the follow up (a couple of months later), children from the intervention group showed advantages over the children in the comparison group. Although we did not discuss word reading with the mothers and did not encourage them to practice word reading with their children, we found that the writing interventions were effective in promoting children’s word reading.