Literacy Instruction Through Media for Everyone

NCT06796790 | Recruiting

• 2 other identifiers: AWD - 118236R01HD114687
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 450
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to determine whether an intervention to support caregivers in engaging with their children while using educational media together can improve children's early literacy skills, compared to an aligned shared book reading intervention and to no intervention. Given that early literacy skills predict children's later academic learning, this home intervention, which aims to shape the communication patterns surrounding a common, family-friendly activity, has the potential to positively influence the trajectory of low income children's academic success. The investigators propose that amedia based activity will reduce barriers and increase adherence therefore increasing literacy skills over time.

Conditions

Media Effects on Literacy Gains in Young Children

Keywords

Literacy; Media; Shared reading; Poverty; Parents; Intervention; Preschool; Television

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (6)

• Print concept knowledge

  Children are administered the Preschool Word and Print Awareness (PWPA) measure (Justice et al., 2006), which examines children's knowledge of 16 basic print concepts. The PWPA has high inter-rater reliability (96% to 100%, Justice \& Ezell, 200), acceptable internal consistency (#= .7; Dobbs- Oates et al., 2015) and can reliably estimate preschoolers' print-concept knowledge (Justice et al., 2006).

  At pretest after enrollment and at posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Alphabet knowledge

  Children are administered the Alphabet Knowledge subtest of the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening - Preschool (PALS-PreK; Invernizzi et al., 2001). Children are presented with uppercase and lowercase letters printed in random order and receive a point for each letter named correctly. Cronbach's alphas average average .86. Inter-rater reliability is \>.96 (Invernizzi et al., 2004). The full PALS-PreK test is highly correlated with measures of reading ability (e.g., Test of Early Reading Ability, r= .67) and predicts later performance on a similar literacy measure (rs \> .53). Further, this subtest has high predictive validity in discriminating children who will later be identified as needing additional instruction (Invernizzi et al., 2001).

  At pretest after enrollment and at posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Name Writing

  Children are administered the Name Writing subtest from the PALS-PreK. In the Name Writing subtest, the child is asked to draw a picture of themselves and then write their name. They are then asked to show the assessor their name. Only the written name is scored. This subtests has high inter-rater reliability (.99). As noted above, the full test has good convergent and predictive validity (Invernizzi et al., 2001).

  At pretest after enrollment and at posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Phonological Awareness

  Children are administered two subtests from the PALS-PreK. In the Beginning Sound Awareness subtest, the child is asked to produce the beginning sound of a word. This subtests has acceptable reliability (# = .93) and inter-rater reliability is high (.99). As noted above, the full test has good convergent and predictive validity (Invernizzi et al., 2001). The Rhyme Awareness subtest was removed in February 2026 due to feasibility concerns identified in early study data.

  At pretest after enrollment and at posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Word reading

  At all timepoints, children are administered the Letter-Word Identification subtest of the Woodcock Johnson IV Test of Achievement (WJ IV; Schrank, McGrew \& Mather, 2014). This subtest requires children to identify or read isolated letters and words orally. This subtest has adequate internal-consistency (.94; Schrank \& Wendling, 2018). It has a high factor loading onto the Broad Reading cluster (.92; McGrew et al., 2014) which is highly correlated with other measures of reading like the Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT) Total Reading (.89; Schrank \& Wendling, 2018). It is strongly correlated with general school readiness (r = .84) as measured by the Differential Ability Scales (McGrew et al., 2014).

  At pretest after enrollment, at posttest after the 12 week intervention period, at 3-month follow up, at 6-month follow-up, and at 12- month follow up

• Spelling

  At all timepoints, children are administered the Spelling subtest from the WJ IV, requiring children to draw lines, trace and write letters, and spell orally presented words. This subtest has adequate internal-consistency reliability (.92; Schrank \& Wendling, 2018) and a high factor loading onto the Broad Written Language Cluster (.87), which is highly correlated with other measures of writing like WIAT Written Expression (.77; McGrew et al., 2014). This subtest is moderately correlated (r = .69) with general school readiness as measured by the Differential Ability Scales (McGrew et al., 2014).

  At pretest after enrollment, at posttest after the 12 week intervention period, at 3-month follow up, at 6-month follow-up, and at 12- month follow up

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Enjoyment of intervention activities

  Four times per week during the 12-week intervention and at posttest after the intervention

• Perceived value of intervention activities

  At posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Ease of Scheduling

  At posttest after the 12 week intervention period

• Caregiver Adherence

  Throughout the 12-week intervention

• Quantity of print-related talk

  Throughout the 12-week intervention

Study Arms (3)

Media instruction

EXPERIMENTAL

Caregivers will be asked to implement joint media sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using lightly adapted versions of the commercially-available Super Why! program, which focuses on early literacy skills, including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week.

Behavioral: Media instruction

Storybook instruction

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Caregivers will be asked to implement joint storybook reading sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using adapted versions of the commercially -available Super-Why! storybooks, which focus on early literacy skills including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week.

Behavioral: Storybook intervention

Business-as-usual control

NO INTERVENTION

Caregivers will be asked to log any joint learning activities they engage in with their child but will not be provided with any specific materials or instructions.

Interventions

Media instruction BEHAVIORAL

Caregivers will be asked to implement joint media sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using lightly adapted versions of the commercially-available Super Why! program, which focuses on early literacy skills, including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week

Media instruction

Storybook intervention BEHAVIORAL

Caregivers will be asked to implement joint storybook reading sessions with their child four times per week for 12 weeks using adapted versions of the commercially -available Super-Why! storybooks, which focus on early literacy skills including alphabet knowledge, rhyming, spelling, and print concepts. Sessions are anticipated to last 20 minutes. Caregivers will be trained by researchers on explicit strategies to use to promote children's learning. Caregivers will digitally log every session and audio record 1 session each week.

Storybook instruction

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 42 Months - 57 Months
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17)

You may qualify if:

• between 42 and 57 months at enrollment
• minimally verbal in English
• caregiver sufficiently proficient in English
• does not have severe intellectual disability

You may not qualify if:

• under 42 months
• over 57 months at enrollment
• severe intellectual disability
• not proficient in English

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): collaborator
• Ohio State University: lead
• University of Central Florida: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

The Ohio State University Crane Center for Early Childhood

Columbus, Ohio, 43201, United States

RECRUITING

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Literacy

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Communication; Behavior

Study Officials

• Rebecca A Dore, PhD

  Ohio State University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Central Study Contacts

Eileen L Donnally, Master of Science

CONTACT

614-247-5897; donnally.7@osu.edu

Rebecca A Dore, PhD

CONTACT

(614) 247-7488; dore.13@osu.edu

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: INVESTIGATOR, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Director of Research

Model Details: This study uses a randomized controlled trial hybrid type 2 design with three planned variations: (1) caregiver-led media-based early literacy intervention, (2) caregiver-led shared reading early literacy intervention, and (3) business-as-usual control. Literacy based media and shared reading will be used that promote literacy learning. Families enrolled in groups (1) and (2) will complete 12 weeks intervention. Families in all groups will also have follow ups at 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-intervention to test long-term effects. Families will digitally log their intervention sessions to track adherence as well as audio record 1 weekly session. Caregivers will be surveyed pre-intervention on other family characteristics and children will be assessed at pre-intervention, post-intervention, 3-, 6-, and 12-months post-intervention.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: January 22, 2025
• First Posted: January 28, 2025
• Study Start: July 11, 2025
• Primary Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2029
• Study Completion (Estimated): August 31, 2029
• Last Updated: February 23, 2026

Record last verified: 2026-02

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Time Frame: Data will be made available upon publication of major findings from the proposed study. Study data deposited in the OSF, Databrary, and CHILDES/TalkBank will be available to the research community in perpetuity.
• Access Criteria: Deidentified datasets will be made available as public use data on the OSF. Data with potentially personally identifiable information, such as audio or video, will be shared in more restricted manner via Databrary. Databrary provides data access to authorized users who have been granted secure access by Databrary's administrators. Only researchers with Principal Investigator status from institutions with Institutional Review Boards or similar review entities, or researchers affiliated with Principal Investigators, will be authorized for access. Transcripts will be shared via CHILDES/TalkBank and will be redacted as needed to remove potentially personally identifiable information.

Locations

US (1)