The National Early Literacy Panel found that shared reading can have a real, positive effect on young children's spoken language and on what they know about print. It appeared to have no effect on awareness of sounds in words or on letter knowledge, though few studies measured those.
The National Early Literacy Panel found that shared-reading programs can have a real, positive effect on young children's spoken language and on what they know about print.
In the source’s own words“shared-reading interventions can have a significant, substantial, and positive impact both on young children’s oral language skills and on young children’s print knowledge.”
The panel reported that shared reading appeared to have no effect on children's awareness of sounds in words or on their letter knowledge, though few studies measured these.
In the source’s own words“Shared-reading interventions appear to have no impact on young children’s PA skills or their AK; however, there have been too few studies using these—or other—outcome measures to provide a reliable estimated ES.”
In the panel's analysis the biggest effect of shared reading was on spoken language.
In the source’s own words“impact of shared reading was on oral language outcomes, with an average ES of 0.73.”
The panel describes one interactive kind of shared reading, called dialogic reading, in which the adult asks the child questions about the story or pictures and builds on the answers.
In the source’s own words“In DR, the adult reader asks the child or children questions about the story or the pictures in the book and provides feedback to the child or children in the form of repetitions, expansions, and modeling of answers.”
The panel reported that few kinds of early programs raised actual reading and spelling skills or the early skills most tied to later reading; the exception was programs that teach the letter-sound code.
In the source’s own words“Few interventions improved conventional literacy skills or the precursor skills most related to later literacy growth, the exception being code-focused interventions.”
The foundational reading guide suggests talking with children before, during and after reading aloud to build the language of predicting and reasoning; the evidence for this recommendation is rated minimal.
In the source’s own words“Develop students’ inferential language—such as predicting, problem-solving, hypothesizing, or contrasting—with conversations before, during, and after read-alouds or other activities.”
The Rose Review said children learning phonics should also get every chance to enjoy good books.
In the source’s own words“it is important to make sure that, over the course of acquiring phonic skills, children are also given every opportunity to enjoy and benefit from excellent literature.”
We read each of these ourselves on October 9, 2026. Follow the links to read them too.
“Behind in reading” can mean ten different things, and each one needs different help. Check off what is true for your child. You will see the one thing to work on first, and what can wait.
