58
JCPSLP
Volume 16, Number 2 2014
Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology
Policy and practice
KEYWORDS
AT RISK
EMERGENT
LITERACY
INTERVENTION
SCHOOL-AGE
THIS ARTICLE
HAS BEEN
PEER-
REVIEWED
Maria Lennox
(top) and Marleen
Westerveld
(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.
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
Enhancing emergent literacy
performance of Australian students
from disadvantaged backgrounds in
their first year of school
A preliminary investigation
Maria Lennox 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.
