Efficacy of an evidence-based literacy intervention for Spanish speaking struggling readers from vulnerable socio-economic status

Introduction. Past research supports the efficacy of evidence-based literacy interventions for English-speaking struggling readers, but it remains unknown if similar results can be achieved in Spanish. Methods. We assessed the impact of a 15-hour long evidence-based literacy intervention for Spanish speaking struggling readers attending grade 1 and 2 in primary schools of vulnerable socio-economic status (SES) in Uruguay. Struggling readers were randomly assigned to a supplementary intervention (n = 68) in addition to business-as-usual classroom instruction or control group (n = 57) and compared to an additional group of typically developing readers (n = 69) on pre-post measures of phonological awareness, spelling, reading fluency and comprehension. Results. Although all participants showed significant improvements with respect to pre-post-test trajectories, struggling readers in the intervention group only achieved higher growth levels as compared to the control group on rhyme identification and partially for comprehension skills. Discussion and conclusions. Findings from this study underline the need to consider contrasts between the writing systems of Spanish and English, as well as cognitive profiles of children from vulnerable SES in Latin-America when applying evidence-based practices to design intervention programs for struggling readers from low SES in Spanish speaking countries.