The long-term impact of intensive reading interventions

New research published in the Journal of Educational Psychology investigates whether the reading benefits that result from early and intensive reading interventions are still evident as the participants move from adolescence to early adulthood. 

The study evaluates reading outcomes approximately 11 years after participants completed an 8-month randomized reading intervention as 2nd or 3rd graders. Of the original 69 participants, 58 (84%) took part.

The results showed statistically significant differences with moderate effect sizes between treatment and comparison groups on standardized measures of word recognition (i.e., Woodcock Basic Skills Cluster, d = 0.53; Woodcock Word Identification, d = 0.62). However, statistical tests on other reading and spelling measures did not reach thresholds for statistical significance.

The authors suggest that the one-off delivery of an intensive intervention is not sufficient for children who are struggling. Rather they should continue to receive support throughout their school career. They also conclude that the field is lacking the long-term follow-up studies needed to understand how early reading interventions influence both long-term school performance and outcomes after secondary education.

Johns Hopkins University 

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