|
|
Overview
Shared Book Reading is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children's language and literacy skills and their appreciation of books. Typically, Shared Book Reading involves an adult reading a book to one child or a small group of children without requiring extensive interactions from them. Two related practices are reviewed in the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) intervention reports on Dialogic Reading and Interactive Shared Book Reading.
Research
Three studies of Shared Book Reading met the WWC evidence standards. 1 These studies, which included a total of 124 preschool children, examined intervention effects on children's oral language and phonological processing. All children were from low- to middle-income families and about half were female. This report focuses on immediate posttest findings to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. 2
Effectiveness
Shared Book Reading was found to have mixed effects on oral language and potentially positive effects on phonological processing.
| Oral language | Print knowledge | Phonological processing | Early reading/ writing | Cognition | Math | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating of effectiveness | Mixed effects | Not reported | Potentially positive effects | Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
| Improvement index3 | Average: +3 percentile points Range: -19 to +15 percentile points |
Not reported | Average: +17 percentile points Range: +1 to +43 percentile points |
Not reported | Not reported | Not reported |
Absence of conflict of interest
The WWC ECE topic team works with two principal investigators: Dr. Ellen Eliason Kisker and Dr. Christopher Lonigan. The studies on Shared Book Reading practices reviewed by the ECE team included one study on which Dr. Lonigan was a primary author. Dr. Lonigan's financial interests are not affected by the success or failure of Shared Book Reading practices, nor does he receive any royalties or other monetary return from the use of Shared Book Reading practices. Dr. Lonigan was not involved in the decision to include the study in the review, and he was not involved in the coding, reconciliation, or discussion of the included study. Dr. Kisker led all review activities related to the study. The decision to review Shared Book Reading practices was made by Dr. Kisker, as co-principal investigator, in collaboration with the rest of the ECE team following prioritization of interventions based on the results from the literature review. This report on Shared Book Reading was reviewed by a group of independent reviewers, including members of the WWC Technical Review Team and external peer reviewers.
2 The evidence presented in this report is based on available research. Findings and conclusions may change as new research becomes available.
3 These numbers show the average and the range of improvement indices for all findings across the studies.