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The Effectiveness of a Large‐Scale Language and Preliteracy Intervention: The SPELL Randomized Controlled Trial in Denmark
Author(s) -
Bleses Dorthe,
Højen Anders,
Justice Laura M.,
Dale Philip S.,
Dybdal Line,
Piasta Shayne B.,
MarkussenBrown Justin,
Clausen Marit,
Haghish E. F.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/cdev.12859
Subject(s) - spell , fidelity , psychology , intervention (counseling) , psychological intervention , randomized controlled trial , language development , scale (ratio) , developmental psychology , medicine , computer science , physics , surgery , quantum mechanics , psychiatry , sociology , anthropology , telecommunications
The present article reports results of a real‐world effectiveness trial conducted in Denmark with six thousand four hundred eighty‐three 3‐ to 6‐year‐olds designed to improve children's language and preliteracy skills. Children in 144 child cares were assigned to a control condition or one of three planned variations of a 20‐week storybook‐based intervention: a base intervention and two enhanced versions featuring extended professional development for educators or a home‐based program for parents. Pre‐ to posttest comparisons revealed a significant impact of all three interventions for preliteracy skills ( = .21–.27) but not language skills (d = .04–.16), with little differentiation among the three variations. Fidelity, indexed by number of lessons delivered, was a significant predictor of most outcomes. Implications for real‐world research and practice are considered.