The Impact of Early Literacy Intervention Groups in Conjunction With Reading Recovery.

The positive, early experiences of children in school can be closely linked to their future success in school and career. Reading Recovery has been successful in helping at-risk first-grade children accelerate and become successful readers and writers. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not Early Literacy Intervention Groups have any effect when used in conjunction with Reading Recovery. This study will examine the following questions: (1) How do Reading Recovery children without Early Literacy Intervention compare to those with this experience on entrance scores into the program? (2) How do Reading Recovery children without Early Literacy Intervention compare to those with this experience on time in program? (3) How many children from Early Literacy Intervention Groups went on to Reading Recovery and discontinued? and (4) How many children successfully exited from the Early Literacy Intervention Groups without going into Reading Recovery? By investigating the addition of Early Literacy Intervention Groups to an already existing Reading Recovery Program, this study will contribute to the body of research on ELIG, provide new information to those in leadership roles for supervising reading programs, and provide an alternative for those looking at new and innovative ways to make Reading Recovery available to more children. This research study employed a retrospective causal-comparative design using an extant data base. The design was a pre-test, post-test, treatment only. Based on the findings of this research, it appears that participation in Early Literacy Intervention Groups has a positive effect on the reading and writing development of at-risk, first-grade children. The combination of ELIG elements and the reading strategies taught in these groups also seemed to have positive effects for ELIG children on all subtests of the Observation Survey