Meta-analyses and narrative review of home-based interventions to improve literacy and mathematics outcomes for children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old

The purpose of these meta-analyses were to examine the effectiveness of home-based interventions aimed at improving literacy and mathematics outcomes for preschool aged children (mean age = 4.29; range = 3.07 to 5.32 years) and to develop an understanding of what home-based interventions work in different contexts. A total of 32 studies met the inclusion criteria for these meta-analyses; 30 studies included sufficient data for inclusion in the meta-analyses and 2 studies did not contain sufficient quantitative data and instead were summarised in a narrative review. The average weighted effect size for interventions with literacy (d = 0.10; CI = -0.17, 0.38; n = 27) and mathematical outcomes (d = 0.18; CI = -1.62, 1.99; n = 8) were small. Hence, these meta-analyses showed that home-based interventions had minimal effect on literacy and mathematical outcomes for pre-schoolers. There were more home-based interventions with literacy (N = 28) than mathematical outcomes (N = 10). The heterogeneity showed no variability indicating that all intervention impacted on children’s outcomes to similar effect. Overall, many interventions were relatively light touch (i.e., time spent engaging in parent training) and the engagement requirement of the parent in some studies was minimal (e.g., reading a short text message). More in-depth research into the components of interventions (e.g., focus, training approaches) and evaluation of interventions before they are implemented is essential for ensuring that early interventions will be effective and lead to the development of the intended skills.