JCPSLP July 2014_Vol16_no2

Policy and practice

Enhancing emergent literacy performance of Australian students from disadvantaged backgrounds in their first year of school A preliminary investigation Maria Lennox and Marleen Westerveld

This paper describes a research-driven initiative aimed at enhancing the emergent literacy skills of students (aged 4;7–5;6 years) from low socioeconomic, culturally diverse backgrounds attending their first (prep) year at a public metropolitan primary school in Queensland. All students (n = 63) from the three prep classes were exposed to their regular classroom literacy curriculum; students in one class received an additional 15 weeks of targeted intervention conducted by the classroom teacher, the speech pathologist, and teacher aides. The intervention consisted of one 30-minute whole class session and one 30-minute small-group session per day, four days a week. The sessions targeted phonological awareness, vocabulary, story grammar, and sentence structure, using scripted session plans. Results indicated that prep students in all three classes made significant progress on measures of spoken language during their first year of school. Following intervention, the students in the intervention class showed greater improvement on a standardised test of phonological awareness than their peers who received regular classroom instruction. This intervention effect was not apparent for any of the other spoken language measures. Implications of the results of this pilot project for the implementation of a larger-scale intervention initiative are reported. E mergent literacy skills are the abilities that develop prior to beginning reading instruction and include print-related skills (e.g., letter knowledge and print concepts), phonological awareness (PA), as well as oral language skills, including vocabulary knowledge, grammatical ability, and storytelling ability (Pullen & Justice, 2003). It is well recognised that students need a solid foundation in such skills for successful literacy acquisition

(Adlof, Catts, & Lee, 2010; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development [NICHD], 2005). Emergent literacy skills can be regarded as a component of what Tunmer, Chapman, and Prochnow (2006) referred to as students’ literate cultural capital , i.e., “reading-related variables at school-entry that are strongly related to activities in the home environment that support early literacy development” (p. 187). Children from low socioeconomic and/or minority ethnic backgrounds are known to have less literate cultural capital at school-entry compared to their peers from more advantaged backgrounds and this may account for as much as 50% of the variance in their reading comprehension ability seven years later (Tunmer et al, 2006). Consequently, classroom-based early interventions often aim to raise young students’ achievement in (emergent) literacy skills, especially in populations who are considered at risk, including those from low socioeconomic or ethnically diverse backgrounds (de Haan, Elbers, Hoofs, & Leseman, 2013; Justice, Mashburn, Pence, & Wiggins, 2008; Justice, Meier, & Walpole, 2005; McIntosh, Crosbie, Holm, Dodd, & Thomas, 2007; Spencer & Slocum, 2010). Results generally show that early classroom-based interventions targeting vocabulary, phonological awareness, and/or oral narratives are effective in enhancing students’ emergent literacy and oral language skills. However, other factors, such as group size, school attendance, teacher characteristics, and maternal reading beliefs also need to be taken into consideration (Justice et al., 2008; see also National Reading Panel, 2000). Surprisingly, little research into the effectiveness of early emergent literacy interventions has been conducted in Australian schools, despite the fact that many Australian children come from ethnically and linguistically diverse backgrounds (McLeod, 2011). Moreover, recent Australian Early Development Index (AEDI) data reveal that approximately one in five Australian primary school-aged students are considered at risk across one or more of the following early childhood development areas: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive skills, communication skills, and general knowledge (Australian Government, 2013). This information is collected through teacher- completed checklists for all children in their first year of formal schooling.

KEYWORDS AT RISK EMERGENT LITERACY INTERVENTION SCHOOL-AGE THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN PEER- REVIEWED

Maria Lennox (top) and Marleen Westerveld

Teacher aides support learning and teaching in Education Queensland schools, including assisting students with special needs in accessing the curriculum. There are no requirements for formal qualifications.

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JCPSLP Volume 16, Number 2 2014

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology