Differential Susceptibility to Early Literacy Intervention in Children With Mild Perinatal Adversities: Short- and Long-Term Effects of a Randomized Control Trial

In a randomized control trial, the authors tested whether short- and long-term effects of an early literacy intervention are moderated by mild perinatal adversities in accordance with differential susceptibility theory. One-hundred 5-year-old children (58% male) who scored at or below the 30th perce...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of educational psychology 2012-05, Vol.104 (2), p.337-349
Main Authors: van der Kooy-Hofland, Verna A. C., van der Kooy, Jacoba, Bus, Adriana G., van IJzendoorn, Marinus H., Bonsel, Gouke J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Background
Biological and medical sciences
Children & youth
Computer Assisted Instruction
Control Groups
Early Intervention
Educational psychology
Emergent Literacy
Female
Foreign Countries
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Informed consent
Internet
Literacy
Literacy Programs
Male
Netherlands
Parents & parenting
Perinatal Period
Premature Infants
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Pupil and student. Academic achievement and failure
Reading Difficulties
Reading Instruction
Reading Research
Remedial Instruction
Research Design
Young Children
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In a randomized control trial, the authors tested whether short- and long-term effects of an early literacy intervention are moderated by mild perinatal adversities in accordance with differential susceptibility theory. One-hundred 5-year-old children (58% male) who scored at or below the 30th percentile on early literacy measures were randomized to a Web-based remedial early literacy program Living Letters or a treated control group. Parents gave written informed consent to access the perinatal data of their children at the Perinatal Register in the Netherlands. Twenty-one children were, at birth, small for gestational age (between the 2.5th and 10th percentiles) or late preterm (between 34 and 37 weeks, 6 days). In this group with mild perinatal adversities, intervention children outperformed the control group immediately after the intervention and after 8 months of formal reading instruction, but a similar effect of the computerized literacy program in children without mild perinatal adversities was absent. In line with the theory of differential susceptibility, children with mild perinatal adversities seem to be more open to environmental input, for better and for worse.
ISSN:0022-0663
1939-2176
DOI:10.1037/a0026984