Dialogic Reading Strategy for Enhancing Caregivers’ Involvement in Children’s Reading Development in Kazaure Local Government, Jigawa State

Abstract

Reading is an essential component of literacy and the children’s ability to read in the early grades contribute significantly to their academic achievement. As such, caregivers are expected to play a prominent role that will facilitate the reading abilities of their children. This research sets out to provide caregivers with strategies that would enable them to be actively involved in the reading activities of their children. Thirty six (36) children were selected randomly among lower basic level and their corresponding caregivers made up the sample of the research making a total of seventy two (72) respondents. A pre-test was administered on the students to determine the baseline data on their reading abilities while interviews were conducted to determine their caregivers` literacy level. The intervention involved training of the caregivers on reading strategies they can adopt to support their children. A period of six weeks was given to the caregivers to apply the strategies on their children while the researchers monitored the activities weekly. A post-test was also administered on the children after the intervention. The results were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS software package. The findings revealed that children whose caregivers involved themselves in their studies performed better than those with low involvement. The findings further revealed that both the students and caregivers who were exposed to dialogic reading have great improvement on their reading ability.