Developing Early Literacy Report of the National Early Literacy Panel: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention
National Early Literacy Panel. (2008).
Jessup (MD): National Institute for Literacy, 260.
This meta-analysis investigates the effect of reading programs and interventions (i.e., code-focused, shared-reading, parent and home programs, preschool and kindergarten programs, language-enhancement) on early literacy development in young children, birth to 5-years-old, with and without disabilities.
Department of Health and Human Services; National Institute for Literacy
Up to present
Published, peer-reviewed experimental study designs; quasi-experimental study designs
Predictors: 234 studies; Interventions: 136 studies
Home and parent programs were found to yield moderate to large effect sizes (ES) on oral language outcomes (ES= .28) and general cognitive abilities (ES= .65). "The effects of these programs on children’s oral language skills were consistent across measures of simple vocabulary and measures of more complex oral language skills" (p. 179).
Code-focused interventions were found to have moderate to large effect sizes (ES) on measures of conventional literacy (e.g., reading, writing) and on measures of pre-literacy skills (e.g., phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge). Code-focused interventions were found to have the greatest effect on phonological awareness (ES= .82). Age or developmental level of children were not found to influence the effectiveness of code-focused interventions.
"The evidence supports the positive impact of shared-reading interventions that are more intensive in frequency and interactive in style on the oral language and print knowledge skills of young children" (pp. 163-164).
Age or developmental level of children were not found to influence the effectiveness of code-focused interventions. "The majority of the code-focused interventions summarized by this meta-analysis were conducted as either individual-level or small group-level interventions. There was no evidence that whole-class or large-group code-focused interventions will produce similar-sized effects on children’s reading-related skills" (p. 119).
"Oral language was found to play a bigger role in later literacy achievement when it was measured using more complex measures that included grammar, the ability to define words, and listening comprehension than when measured using only simple vocabulary knowledge" (p. viii).
The following early literacy skills were moderately correlated with at least one later literacy outcome, but did not maintain predictive ability or were not yet evaluated for later literacy outcomes:<ul> <li>concepts about print; </li> <li>print knowledge;</li> <li>reading readiness; </li> <li>oral language; and </li> <li>visual processing.</li></ul>
Language-enhancement interventions were found to increase oral language skills, to a large and statistically significant degree, in children with language impairments or with normal language functioning. "Older children, between three and five years of age, did not get as big a language boost from these interventions as did the younger children" (p. 222). This indicated the advantage of intervening earlier rather than later.
"In general, ... variables, such as age, [socioeconomic status] SES, and race, did not seem to alter the effectiveness of the various interventions [i.e., code-focused, shared-reading, parent and home programs, preschool and kindergarten programs, language-enhancement]" (p. x).
"Preschool and kindergarten programs do affect young children’s development of conventional literacy skills as well as important emergent literacy skills…. The largest impact of the preschool and kindergarten programs was on the composite measure of [school] readiness" (p. 198).
The following variables were found to be correlated with later literacy outcomes and to maintain significant prediction ability of literacy outcomes even when the role of other variables (e.g., intelligence quotient, socioeconomic status) were considered:<ul> <li>alphabet knowledge;</li> <li>phonological awareness;</li> <li>rapid automatic naming (RAN) of letters or digits;</li> <li>RAN of objects of colors;</li> <li>writing or writing one’s own name; and </li> <li>phonological memory.</li></ul>
Shared-reading interventions in young children were found to yield moderate effect sizes (ES) on oral language skills (ES= .66) and print knowledge (ES= .51). "For oral language skills, these effects were robust across variations in the type of shared-reading intervention and the children’s ages or their risk status.... Shared-reading interventions appear to be equally effective for older and younger children" (p. 162).
