Groundbreaking literacy program triples rate of progress among struggling young readers
A University of Alberta literacy expert has completed the largest reading intervention in Canadian history, tripling the rate of progress for most participants after just five months. Preliminary results show that about half of the children in the program require no further intervention.
A University of Alberta literacy expert has led the largest reading intervention in Canadian history, resulting in a tripling of the progress rate for most participants after just five months. The program, delivered to 1,000 second-grade struggling readers across five provinces, saw about 80% of participants improve by an estimated year and a half beyond normal development.
Dr. George Georgiou, the program's creator, reports that half of the children require no further intervention, while 10% showed no improvement and 5% worsened, mostly due to poor attendance. The intervention focused on phonological awareness, phonics, irregular word reading, and shared book reading. This successful program, implemented in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, has been recognized by Alberta Education, which recently announced plans to expand literacy support to fifth grade starting next September.
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