Martine van der Pluijm

29 Activities and strategies – a review of empirical interventions of subgroups, interventions have shown different results for parents of lower and higher educational levels. Mol et al. (2008) found different effect sizes ( d = 0.13 for the at-risk group and d = 0.53 for the non-risk group, respectively) for dialogic reading interventions, a specific form of shared reading that aims to involve the child actively in dialogues. Manz et al. (2010) showed similar outcomes for dialogic reading and other interventions ( d = 0.14 and d = 0.39 for parents with lower and higher socio-economic backgrounds, respectively) and different outcomes for ethnic groups ( d = 0.64 for Caucasians and d = 0.16 for ethnic minorities). Parental educational level is one of the indicators used in many studies to determine the risk status of participants (Blok, Fukkink, Gebhart, & Leseman, 2005; Mol et al., 2008; Sénéchal & Young, 2008; Van Steensel et al., 2011) No systematic reviews have compared the impact of family literacy interventions for lower- educated and higher-educated parents. Available evidence suggests that it is difficult to implement family literacy interventions specifically for lower-educated parents. An evaluation of the Even Start Family Literacy Program, involving primarily lower-educated parents in child education interventions and adult education, found no significant effects on literacy measures for children (St. Pierre et al., 2003; 2005). Developers of family literacy interventions face the challenge of selecting effective activities and strategies directed at lower-educated parents. However, only a few studies compare the effects of such activities and strategies directed at children’s oral language development. Mol et al.’s meta-analysis (2008) focuses on dialogic reading interventions only. Sénéchal & Young (2008) compared the effects of various family literacy interventions focused on children’s reading acquisition. Their findings show different effects of three types of intervention activities on children’s reading acquisition, for all parents and social classes. Tutoring basic literacy skills appeared to be more effective than shared book reading. Van Steensel et al. (2011) found no differences between the code-focused and comprehension-focused interventions. More research is needed to identify specific activity types that are effective for lower-educated parents considering their social, cultural, and literacy practices (cf., Bus, Leseman, & Keultjes, 2000; Manz et al., 2010; Van Steensel et al., 2011). There is a knowledge gap concerning the guidelines that lower-educated parents can use effectively for learning activities with their children. These activities can vary from parent- child oral interaction to basic literacy learning techniques (Fine & Henry, 1989). Parents can be coached to use a diversity of strategies during these activities, for example, using open questions during book reading or using specific questions to stimulate the child to think and use language (scaffolding). The use of these strategies is decisive for the effectiveness of interventions, as the provision of activities (such as shared reading) is not sufficient (Mol et al., 2008; Sonnenschein & Munsterman, 2002; Wasik & Sparling, 2012). Although all interventions