Interactive Reading to Improve Language and Emergent Literacy Skills of Preschool Children from Low Socioeconomic and Language-Minority Backgrounds

Children with low socioeconomic status and language-minority backgrounds generally have weak precursory skills (language and emergent literacy) for learning written language. These skills can be stimulated through interactive reading sessions. Our innovative study for French-speaking Belgium aimed to evaluate the effects of an interactive reading intervention in kindergarten classes, including children with a low socioeconomic status and a language-minority background. The convenience sample consisted of eight schools with differentiated teaching in Brussels city-center. The treatment group, which benefits from interactive reading sessions, include 11 classes (N = 194) and the control group was comprised of eight classes (N = 91). The teachers of the treatment group worked with their class during 30 sessions of interactive reading (3 sessions/week). Pre and post-intervention language and emergent literacy measures were conducted. Children from the treatment group evolved significantly better in postintervention for language (vocabulary, morphosyntax) and emergent literacy skills (print awareness, letter knowledge and phonological awareness), compared to the control group. The implications for kindergarten curricula are discussed.