Evaluation of the effectiveness of the Childhood Development Initiative’s Doodle Den Literacy Programme, 2008-2011

In total, 623 children were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups over the three cohorts. 464 children, 472 teacher child assessments and 197 parents completed both pre- and post-test questionnaires.<br> Data were collected on three primary outcomes and seven secondary outcomes, utilising a combination of child, parent and teacher responses.

The primary outcomes comprised: a direct measure of the children’s overall literacy ability, a teachers’ rating of general literacy ability and a children’s writing ability item. The secondary outcomes included: school attendance; literacy activity; library activity; children’s reading activities at home; concentration and behaviour in class; children’s attitudes to literacy; and parental attitudes to reading.<br> Other, contextual data include child gender; which of the three cohorts the child participated in; the ethnicity of the child; the level of family affluence/poverty; and the number of sessions attended by the child.