Improving Bilingual Preschoolers’ Notational Ability: The Efficacy of Two School-Based Interventions

We present a randomized trial study aimed to analyze the efficacy of two different school-based interventions—normal preschool literacy teaching, and the PASSI intervention carried out for different durations (12 versus 30 weeks)—on improving notational ability of 251 children (bilingual language-minority [BLM] preschoolers and their monolingual peers) aged 4–5 years (49% males, 51% females). The participants were recruited from preschools in Italy and randomly assigned to three groups involved in different notational-focused interventions: (1) normal preschool literacy teaching (Group 1); (2) the PASSI intervention carried out for 12 weeks (Group 2); and (3) the PASSI intervention carried out for 30 weeks (Group 3). Results from the comparison of children’s notational ability before and after the interventions showed that the PASSI intervention (both durations of 12 and 30 weeks) led to a significantly higher level of notational ability in BLM children and their monolingual peers. Moreover, the PASSI intervention carried out for 30 weeks, filled the gap between the baseline difference between BLMs and their monolingual peers.