An investigation of the effects of a comprehensive language program on the emergent literacy skills of migrant children

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a comprehensive language program (i.e., Stepping Stones to Literacy ; Nelson, Cooper, & Gonzalez, 2004; Language For Learning ; Engelmann & Osborn, 1999) on the emergent literacy skills (i.e. oral language, phonological awareness, and alphabetic recognition) of migrant Hispanic preschool children when compared to non-migrant Hispanic peers. Results revealed two findings: (a) children in both the migrant and non-migrant groups evidenced moderate to large gains on all four emergent literacy measures throughout the program and (b) children in the migrant treatment group did not evidence statistically significant improvements in emergent literacy skills when compared to the non-migrant Hispanic control group. Between-subjects effect sizes show a moderate gain in oral language (ES = 0.42) but larger gains by the non-migrant children for the other measures of emergent literacy (ES = −0.32 to −0.37). These findings are not consistent with the outcomes of previous research assessing the effects of literacy interventions on the emergent literacy skills of young children