NCT06796790

Literacy Instruction Through Media for Everyone

Efficacy and Mechanisms of Media and Storybook Interventions to Promote Children's Early Literacy Skills Via Caregiver Engagement

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 450 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Ohio State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 42 Months – 57 Months
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The goal of this study is to determine whether an intervention to support caregivers in engaging with their children while using educational media together can improve children's early literacy skills, compared to an aligned shared book reading intervention and to no intervention. Given that early literacy skills predict children's later academic learning, this home intervention, which aims to shape the communication patterns surrounding a common, family-friendly activity, has the potential to positively influence the trajectory of low income children's academic success. The investigators propose that amedia based activity will reduce barriers and increase adherence therefore increasing literacy skills over time.

Detailed description

The proposed study draws upon an implementation science framework (Nilsen, 2015) to determine the extent to which a media-based caregiver-led intervention improves caregiver adherence and in turn children's early literacy development relative to a shared reading intervention. Caregiver-implemented shared reading interventions represent the 'current standard practice' for addressing early literacy needs, yet many caregivers cannot implement this practice with adequate adherence. This is particularly true for low-socioeconomic status families, in which shared reading may not be a conventional activity and barriers inhibit its use. The investigators propose-and test-that a media-based intervention reduces barriers to intervention implementation and increases social validity, leading to higher levels of adherence and, via mediation, enhanced child literacy outcomes. To establish this causal chain, the investigators mplement a media-based early literacy intervention, compare it to a highly aligned shared reading intervention, and measure (1) social validity of the intervention to test whether use of media circumvents barriers, (2) caregiver adherence (i.e., frequency and dosage), and (3) child early literacy skills gains immediately and over time. As the first causally interpretable study to compare media and shared reading as caregiver-led interventions, the proposed project will identify strategies to improve adherence in home-based interventions and inform development of interventions to improve school readiness among low-SES children.

Conditions

• Media Effects on Literacy Gains in Young Children

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Media instruction	Caregivers will be asked to implement joint media sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using lightly adapted versions of the commercially-available Super Why! program, which focuses on early literacy skills, including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week
BEHAVIORAL	Storybook intervention	Caregivers will be asked to implement joint storybook reading sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using adapted versions of the commercially -available Super-Why! storybooks, which focus on early literacy skills including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-07-11
• Primary completion: 2029-08-31
• Completion: 2029-08-31
• First posted: 2025-01-28
• Last updated: 2026-02-23

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States