Emergent literacy: effects of a multi-tier intervention in a COVID-19 pandemic context

ABSTRACT

Emergent literacy (EL) interventions are effective at fostering foundational skills for reading and writing. During the COVID-19 pandemic schools faced several challenges to maintain these interventions, namely changing face-to-face to remote modalities. In this study, the effects of a multi-tier emergent literacy intervention are examined, delivered both in face-to-face and remote modalities, during the second COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The intervention was delivered to 102 preschool Portuguese children (aged 5–6 years) according to the Multi-Tier Systems of Support (MTSS) framework and evaluated using a pre and post-test design and a single group. The results showed significant gains after the intervention in all emergent literacy skills evaluated: phonological awareness, vocabulary, print concepts, alphabet knowledge, and emergent writing. These findings highlight the relevance of systematic interventions that implement universal screenings, progress monitoring and decision-making processes based on children’s performance, and the potentialities of using mixed modalities (face-to-face and remote) to deliver such interventions in uncertain times.

KEYWORDS:

• Emergent literacy
• MTSS
• remote intervention
• COVID-19
• preschool

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the school boards, parents, school psychologists and educators who facilitated the data collection, and to thank the children who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

JC made substantial contributions to the conceptualisation and methodology of the study, data collection, and interpretation of the results. HB and MC made substantial contributions to conceptualisation of the study and discussion of the results. SM made substantial contributions to methodology and discussion of the results. All authors were involved in drafting the manuscript and revising it critically for important intellectual content. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science (FCT) and Technology and the Portuguese Ministry of Science, Technology, and Higher Education through national funds within the framework of the Psychology for Development Research Center - CIPD (grant number UIDB/04375/2020).