Martine van der Pluijm

50 Chapter 2 TABLE 2.4: Overview of experimental comparisons for activity type for low-educated and heterogeneous groups of parents ( n = 22) Studies directed at low-educated samples Studies directed at heterogeneous samples Author No. exp. compa- risons* No.sign. Effects** RA Author No. exp. compa- risons* No. sign. Effects ** RA Shared reading activities 1. Dialogic reading Brickman (6) 5 1 (neg.) N Blom-Hofman (2) 2 2 Y Reese (17) 4 0 Y Chow (7) 2 1 Y Chow (8) 1 1 Y Total 9 1 (neg.) 1 Total 5 4 3 2. Story book reading Brannon (5) 2 2 N Aram (1) 3 2 Y Levin (13) 5 1 Y Sim (21) 12 4 Y Total 2 2 0 Total 20 7 3 Other home activities 1. Talk and play activities Boyce (4) 2 2 Y Boland (3) 6 2 Y Landry (12) 9 6 Y Pelletier (15) 6 4 N Reese*** (17) 4 1 Y Sheridan (20) 2 1 Y Ryan (19) 1 1 N Strouse (23) 9 6 Y St.Clair (22) 3 2 N Sundman (24) 2 2 Y Total 19 12 3 Total 25 15 4 2. Read and write activities Kagitcibasi (10) 1 1 N Sylva (25) 2 0 Y Rolla San Francisco (18) 2 0 Y Levin ***(13) 10 0 Y Van Tuijl (27) 7 0 N Total 10 1 1 Total 12 0 2 * Number of comparisons between experimental and control groups x number of posttests. **effect sizes are reported in Table 1. ***Studies have two interventions and are therefore included in two categories. Abbreviations: Y:yes, N=no, No=number, exp=experimental, RA=Random Assignment Regarding the effects of the strategies accompanying the above activity types, the following conclusions can be drawn. All talk and play studies directed at lower-educated parents used oral language and responsive communication strategies (see Table 2.2) and are therefore partly responsible for the positive effects associated with talk and play activities. However, the shared reading studies also used these strategies, but were apparently less successfully,