Promoting early literacy: The differential effects of parent-child joint writing and joint storybook reading interventions

This chapter describes a study that assessed the effects of different parent-child activities on early literacy. Participants were 131 low socioeconomic status parent-kindergartner dyads. Three groups of parents participated in workshops on mediated learning, applied to one of the following learning areas: parent-child writing interactions, interactive parent-child storybook reading, or parent-child visuo-motor activities. Seven weeks of tri-weekly structured dyadic interactions and weekly tutorial home visits followed. A fourth group (control) received no intervention. Assessments of children's alphabetic skills and linguistic competencies at Pretest, Posttest 1, and Posttest 2 examined immediate and sustained effects. Alphabetic skills were best promoted by mediated writing, secondarily by enriched joint reading including reference to print, and slightly by mediated learning of visuo-motor skills. Linguistic competencies were enhanced by enriched interactive joint reading. These effects emerged after partialling out pretest scores and involvement in related games. The chapter describes and discusses the contribution of different parent-child dyadic activities at home in promoting skills that pave the way to reading and spelling acquisition.