Looked after children have been identified by successive governments as a vulnerable group who have persistently demonstrated poor outcomes across a range of measures, including educational attainment and social inclusion (DfE, 2012a). The 2010 Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government has identified narrowing the gap between this group and their peers as a key priority, and Paired Reading is one intervention that has been shown to improve literacy levels when implemented with looked after children (Osborne et al., 2010), with further potential value in strengthening the adult-child relationship through their shared engagement in the reading process (Topping, 2001). A mixed methods design measuring reading across three time points was used to assess the impact of a Paired Reading intervention with looked after children and their carers on the children’s reading levels. Although a significant difference was found for two of the measures of reading progress, a more detailed analysis of the data suggests that there was wide variation in both pre- and post- intervention scores. The results from this research suggest that Paired Reading may be an effective intervention for some looked after children, but that a differential analysis of individual child needs is required prior to implementation, taking into consideration children’s previous life experiences, literacy performance and relationship with their carer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:607261 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Gately, Rachel |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk//id/eprint/5123/ |
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