Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World 4.2 What does the lite
rature say? What does the literature say about bookgifting programmes in relation to the home language environment and early language development? All in all, there is a striking consensus within the literature and the empirical results that are presented. Early language activities in the home are important for language development in young children, and bookgifting programmes such as Bookstart and Reach Out and Read can contribute to increasing the amount of language activities in the home. The presentation of research results begins by examining the ways that bookgifting programmes are able to affect the home language environment (attitudes and behaviour in the children’s families and homes towards literacy activities such as reading aloud). Some studies are then described that show the link between the home environment and a child’s actual language development. Finally, there is a description of the studies that researched the effect of bookgifting programmes on language development in children. 4.2.1 The home language environment One key issue for bookgifting programmes involves the home language environment for children and their families. At the heart of bookgifting programmes is promoting reading and language activities in families with young children, so this issue has also received much attention. The main question is whether bookgifting programmes like Bookstart and Reach Out and Read promote such home language environments for young children or not. This is often measured by seeing how often parents read together with their children, how many books they have in the home, whether reading is one of the child’s favourite activities, if it has a favourite book, what attitudes the parents have towards reading etc. The overall picture that emerges from this overview is that bookgifting programmes affect parents’ attitudes and behaviour in the desired direction. There is evidence that bookgifting programmes such as Bookstart and Reach Out and Read lead to parents engaging more in language activities in the home, and that the programmes generally serve as a support for language development in young children (Needlman & Silverstein, 2004; Sanders et al., 2000; Fricke et al., 2016; Golova et al., 1999; High et al., 1998; Berg, 2015; Bondt, Willenberg & Bus, 2020). Reach Out and Read in the USA is a programme that has served as a starting point for several studies on home language environments. Early on, a study by High et al. (1998) found that families participating in Reach Out and Read were more likely to read bedtime stories with their children than families that did not participate in the programme (i.e., did not receive free books and guidance from child healthcare services). Attitudes towards reading as an activity were also noted to be better amongst those who participated in the programme. Golova et al. (1999) also found that children who participated in the programme had someone read to them more often and had more books in the home. Both of these studies have limited their samples to lowincome families, since socioeconomic factors constitute a risk variable for language development in children. The results thus also indicate that bookgifting programmes similar to Reach Out and Read can contribute to promoting the right conditions for language development in children belonging to socioeconomically disadvantaged families. Several similar studies have been conducted that measure literacy activities in the home, all of which came to similar conclusions (Fricke et al., 2016; Sanders et al., 2000; Canfield et al., 2018; Needlman et al., 2005). It is also worth noting that, although most of these studies had fairly small sample sizes, Needlman et al. (2005) had a national sample (1,647 participating children) in the United States; however the sample was not representative of the entire population8 and the locations were not randomly selected, so the results should be interpreted with care. Nevertheless, the study does confirm earlier results showing that Reach Out and Read results in participating parents and children engaging in literacy activities to a greater extent. 8. The selection was based on a socalled convenience sample – that is, that participants in the study were gathered from clinics where ROR had not been (though planned to be) implemented and was compared with children from clinics where ROR was already active. 24/52