The Impact of Better Start Literacy Approach Teaching on the Retention of Children’s Early Literacy Skills over the Summer Holidays

Abstract Studies have documented a Summer Learning Effect (SLE), where children lose some of their school learning over the summer holiday period. Few of these studies, however, have investigated the impact of classroom teaching on the SLE. This study investigated the SLE on five and six-year-old emergent learners in New Zealand who had 10 weeks of early literacy instruction using the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA). Results indicated no statistically significant change in student scores over the summer holiday break. These results indicate that the BSLA may be effective in embedding initial literacy skills.