Effectiveness of an Enhanced Book-Gifting Intervention

This project draws together two common approaches to seeking to enhance educational outcomes for this group of children: book-gifting and paired reading. The project team will seek to develop and enhance a book-gifting intervention for foster children by incorporating a role for the foster carers in supporting the children’s engagement in the intervention through paired reading.

The research is driven by four questions: i) can book-gifting programmes be effective in improving the reading skills of children in foster care if supplemented with an enhanced role for the foster carer?; ii) can this enhanced role be supported through the provision of a manual or does it require direct training?; iii) do the resulting outcomes differ in relation to the child’s age and gender and the foster carer’s educational qualifications?, and; iv) how can the contribution of foster carers to the educational development of children in foster care be better theorised and understood?