Abstract
Research Findings: In this study, we examined the short- and long-term effects of Reading Express, a home-visiting intervention in which volunteers encourage low socio-economic status and ethnic minority parents to engage in interactive shared reading with their child. Outcomes of a quasi-experiment involving 176 children in the Netherlands (mean age 72 months; nexperimental = 95; ncontrol = 81) revealed favorable outcomes of Reading Express for children’s home literacy environments (i.e., children’s book exposure and parents’ reported shared reading frequency), which were maintained over time. Reading Express also had a positive short-term effect on story comprehension. However, the positive trend in story comprehension leveled off 20 weeks after program termination and there were neither short-term nor long-term effects on receptive vocabulary. Practice or Policy: Our results show that longer-term changes can be made in children’s home literacy environments by means of home visiting programs such as Reading Express, but they also suggest the relevance of better adapting programs to the characteristics and needs of participating families.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1919-1940 |
Number of pages | 22 |
Journal | Early Education and Development |
Volume | 34 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2022 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Research programs
- ESSB PSY