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The Effect of the Literacy Express Curriculum (LEC) on Children’s Language Development (308527)

Keywords: longitudinal structural equation model, language development, intervention program, early education

The educational achievement gap of students of socioeconomic and ethnic minorities has raised concerns in educators and researchers. A Literacy Express Curriculum (LEC) was developed to improve preschool children’s academic outcomes. This study aims to investigate the intervention, sociodemographic and linguistic factors that would affect children’s developmental trajectory. Participants were 165 children (mean age=4.54) in Texas and Florida, with 62% African Americans. Pre-school centers were randomly assigned to the LEC group or the control group. Language development measures were administered at the beginning (T1) and the end of the school year (T2). A follow-up study measured participants’ reading abilities at the end of their first-grade year (T3). Results of the longitudinal SEM suggested that phonological awareness, expressive vocabulary, and general language abilities at T1 significantly predicted the same measures at T2, and subsequently predicted reading abilities at T3. The intervention effect was significant at T3 for reading comprehension. The results provide empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of LEC for improving children’s school readiness.