A community-centered, occupation-based program was implemented among children and families in the Bronx to enhance reading engagement, children’s perceptions of reading, and caregiver confidence in supporting literacy routines. Strong evidence shows that parent – child shared reading improves children’s reading participation and early literacy development. Moderate evidence also supports occupation- and activity-based literacy interventions for improving children’s reading attitudes and participation. Based on this evidence, the reading program fostered an environment that engaged both peers and parents in meaningful reading-based group activities. A single-group pretest – posttest design was used to measure change, with six children and four caregivers completing pre/post surveys. Caregiver surveys included a ten-item, five-point Likert-type scale and qualitative questions about home routines. Child surveys used a ten-item, three-point Likert-type scale assessing reading self-perception, reading habits, and reading strategy use. Caregivers demonstrated high baseline attitudes toward reading, yet improvements were observed in knowledge of reading strategies and beliefs about the social value of literacy. Children showed increased enjoyment of reading, particularly endorsing that reading is fun (from 67% to 100% “Yes”), along with gains in reading aloud and functional reading. Several items remained stable, and minor decreases in a few child items likely reflected normal variability. These findings support occupation-based, community-delivered literacy programs in underserved settings. Embedding reading into play, routines, and meaningful activities may help occupational therapists promote literacy through motivation and participation. Research using larger samples and longer program duration is needed.
Soba et al. (Sun,) studied this question.