The Contribution of Interactive Reading Activities to Children s Listening Skills

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Interactive Reading Program (IRP) implemented to improve the listening skills of 60-72-month-old children. In this study conducted with the action research method, one of the qualitative research designs, the data collection process was carried out in three stages (readiness, implementation, and retention). The sample consisted of 11 children (6 girls and 5 boys) attending kindergarten in a public school in Uşak. The “Form for Assessing Listening Skills of 60-72 Month-old Children” developed by the researchers was used as the data collection tool. During the research process, unstructured traditional reading and IRP practices were carried out both at the group and individual levels, and retention data were collected at the 6th week after the practice. The findings showed that children’s listening skills improved significantly and systematically, especially with the individual IRP interventions, and remarkable progress was observed in high-level listening skills such as interpretation, prediction, and association. In the retention measurements, it was determined that the gains could be maintained to a large extent; in some children, learning emerged with a delay. However, it was determined that some children still needed support due to individual differences.