Book Description
Preschool reading readiness is an issue with growing interest. The preschool years provide an opportune time when reading difficulties are more easily altered through exposure to early literacy skills. This paper extends the authors' previous research by examining the kindergarten performance of a cohort of children from a multi-year research study in which preschoolers-at-risk for early literacy failure received targeted supplemental instruction. The goal of the present study is to examine the maintenance of the positive effects found for children from a cohort of the study. Of particular interest is whether children who completed the prekindergarten early literacy intervention go on to complete kindergarten with developmentally appropriate levels of reading readiness and whether children's response to the intervention is predictive of their kindergarten reading achievement. Results report children who received prekindergarten Tier 2 early literacy intervention were performing in the developmentally appropriate range in kindergarten. A systematic increase in performance over time was evident for each measure. The findings also indicate that children who received prekindergarten early literacy intervention were performing in the developmentally appropriate range in kindergarten with scores indicative of low-risk for future reading delays. In addition, examination of children's third grade reading achievement indicates comparable performance to both district and state norms.
