Giving children access to print materials is associated with positive behavioral, educational, and psychological outcomes
What impact, if any, does access to print materials have on children’s educational outcomes?
Children’s book distribution programs were created to provide greater access to high-quality, age-appropriate reading materials to children from low-income homes as one effort to address the achievement gap. In 2010, Reading Is Fundamental commissioned Learning Point Associates to conduct a meta-analytic research synthesis of children’s book lending and book ownership programs to determine the effect of providing access to print materials on children’s educational outcomes.
Meta-analysis of the 44 studies classified as rigorous of the 108 examined in the review found that access to print materials:
- Improves children’s reading performance – Findings from the rigorous studies suggest that providing children with print materials helps children read better. Among the studies reviewed, Kindergarten students showed the biggest increase in reading performance.
- Are instrumental in helping children learn the basics of reading – The review found that providing children with reading materials allowed them to develop basic reading skills such as letter and word identification, phonemic awareness and completion of sentences.
- Causes children to read more and for longer lengths of time – Giving children print materials leads them to read more frequently and for greater amounts of time.
- Produces improved attitudes toward reading and learning among children – The review found that when children have greater access to books and other print materials— through either borrowing books or receiving books to own—they develop more positive attitudes toward reading and learning.
This study also found positive relationships between children’s access to print materials and four additional outcomes: motivation to and interest in reading; writing performance; language development; and academic performance in subjects other than reading after performance.
Click here for more information about this study.