The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a difference between mean measures of preliteracy skills of preschool children who participated in Creating Young Readers, a volunteer based reading program, and a control group who had not. Unpaid community volunteers were trained in a modified dialogic reading technique, focusing on children‟s active engagement, strengthening oral language, vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration. The volunteers read with each child individually two to three times a week, approximately 20 minutes per session, in the preschool classroom during a standard school year.
The ten participating preschools primarily served African-American children from single parent, urban, lower income families who received subsidized daycare. Evaluation of the preschoolers' productive vocabulary, rhyming, and alliteration was obtained through the use of Get It, Got It, Go!, a timed, standardized early literacy assessment. These data were collected in fall and spring over three years, and then divided into a control group and two separate years. ANOVA was used to analyze the data.
Children who worked with a volunteer reader showed an increase in scores from fall to spring in all three areas. Only the changes from fall to spring in picture naming and rhyming means were found to be statistically significant in the three groups. The increase from fall to spring was not statistically significant in alliteration in any year for any of the three groups. Children who participated in the second year of Creating Young Readers were found to have significantly higher mean scores than children in the control group or in the first year.
This research did not determine causality, only correlation. Readers are cautioned not to over-interpret the results due to possible variables in adherence to data collection protocol, the preschools, their populations, and other unknown factors. Still, the research provides evidence that unpaid community volunteers may positively affect the literacy skills of disadvantaged preschool children. Further longitudinal research is needed to determine if gains are retained over time.