Martine van der Pluijm

49 Activities and strategies – a review of empirical interventions We found less evidence for the effectiveness of shared reading for lower-educated parents and their children. Of the three experimental studies (two dialogic reading, one story reading), one reported significant positive effects, one no effects, and one negative effects. These three studies included 11 experimental comparisons (see Table 2.4), two of which showed positive effects (22%). We found the least evidence for the effectiveness of read and write activities for lower- educated parents. One of the three experimental studies reported positive effects on children’s oral language development, whereas two reported no effects. These studies included ten experimental comparisons (see Table 2.4), only one of which showed a positive effect on oral language development (10%). When comparing these results for lower-educated parents to the results of the heterogeneous groups of parents, we see similar results for the talk and play activities. In total, five experimental talk and play studies reported positive effects (of which four use random assignment). These studies included 25 experimental comparisons, 15 of which showed positive effects (60% compared to 63% for lower-educated parents). For shared reading in heterogeneous groups, however, a different picture emerges. Six studies (three dialogic reading and three story book reading) comparing experimental and control groups directed at heterogeneous groups of parents reported positive effects. The six studies included 25 experimental comparisons, 11 of which showed positive effects of shared reading (44% compared to 22% for lower-educated parents). The evidence for the effects of shared reading with heterogeneous groups of parents, based on much more experimental evidence than for lower-educated parents, can therefore be considered as more convincing. Finally, for read and write activities directed at heterogeneous groups, we find no evidence at all for effects on children’s oral language development. Only two studies in this category included 12 experimental comparisons (see Table 2.4), none of which showed effects. In addition to the studies presented in Table 2.4, six studies (9, 11, 14, 16, 26, 28) without comparison to control groups are all directed at lower-educated parents. Three of these studies used read and write activities and reported mixed results. One study showed increased oral language development, one showed no development, and one showed negative growth. The other three studies used shared reading (two dialogic and one story reading) and showed an increase in children’s oral language development. Given that these are all rather small-scale studies with few participants (4-16), and do not have a comparison group, we cannot give much weight to their results. Perhaps lower-educated parents received more individualized coaching in shared reading in such small scale interventions, explaining the positive results found.