Literacy Instruction Through Media for Everyone

Conditions

• Media Effects on Literacy Gains in Young Children

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

42 Months - 57 Months

Healthy Volunteers

Accepted

Interventions

• Media instruction — BEHAVIORAL
  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
• Storybook intervention — BEHAVIORAL
  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.

Study Details

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.

Key Dates

Start date

Jul 11, 2025

Status verified

Feb 2026

Primary completion

Aug 31, 2029

Completion

Aug 31, 2029

Study Design

Enrollment

450 participants (estimated)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

PREVENTION

Arms

• Experimental: 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.
• Active Comparator: Storybook instruction
  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.
• No Intervention: Business-as-usual control
  Caregivers will be asked to log any joint learning activities they engage in with their child but will not be provided with any specific materials or instructions.

Primary Outcome Measure

Print concept knowledge [ Time Frame: At pretest after enrollment and at posttest after the 12 week intervention period ]

Central Contacts

• Eileen L Donnally, Master of Science
  614-247-5897
  [email protected]
• Rebecca A Dore, PhD
  (614) 247-7488
  [email protected]

Locations (1)

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