Getting children from low-income families to read: What works

Abstract

This paper is an excerpt from the author's Master of Education dissertation. The author carried out a study to evaluate a community-based reading programme, kidsREAD for children aged between 4 and 8 of different ethnic groups from low-income families. These children, who are most at risk of reading failure, were exposed to one hour of weekly reading intervention for a year at various reading clubs where volunteers read aloud stories to them in groups before engaging them in a variety of other reading-related activities. Analyses using paired t-tests and intercorrelation were conducted on variables to establish the significance of the effects, and to examine the links among the reading activities measured. Drawing from the research findings and literature review, the author discusses how the underlying elements of the kidsREAD programme might have worked to benefit slow or poor readers.