Individual differences in response to a large-scale language and pre-literacy intervention for preschoolers in Denmark

The study investigates the effect of the SPELL programme on different groups of Danish kindergarten children. The SPELL programme aims to strengthen children’s language and initial literacy. The authors seek answers regarding which children such literacy interventions have the greatest effect on. The research questions are: 1) Is the SPELL intervention’s effect on kindergarten children’s language and initial literacy related to whether the children are bilingual or have Danish as their mother tongue? 2) Is the SPELL intervention’s effect on kindergarten children’s language and initial literacy related to how they score on the pre-test? 3) Is the SPELL intervention’s effect on kindergarten children’s language and initial literacy related to children’s literacy experiences from home?

The results show that the SPELL programme has a significant effect in terms of improving kindergarten children’s initial literacy, but the study did not find a significant improvement in the children’s language. SPELL had the greatest effect on two groups of kindergarten children: Children from immigrant families and children with low literacy skills. Scores on the post-tests increased just as much for children from immigrant families as for ethnic Danish children. Kindergarten children who initially had low literacy skills showed greater progress after SPELL than children who had higher literacy skills before the intervention. According to the study, there is no evidence that children who experience little literacy stimulation from home benefit more from SPELL than other children.

The sample of 1898 Danish kindergarten children, from 4 to 6 years old, was randomly divided into an intervention group and a control group. All the children completed language and literacy tests before and after the intervention. In the sample group, the children were read aloud to for approximately 30 minutes twice a week over a period of 20 weeks. The reading aloud was particularly focused on strengthening the children’s vocabulary, narrative skills, writing knowledge and phonological awareness. The results from the intervention group and the control group were then compared with a statistical multilevel model, where the groups were divided according to the results they got on the pre-test, their literacy experiences from home, and whether or not they came from immigrant families.

Dale, P., Logan, J., Bleses, D., Højen, A. & Justice, L. (2018). “Individual differences in response to a large-scale language and pre-literacy intervention for preschoolers in Denmark” Learning and Individual Differences, 61:68-76.