In a highly literate society like Singapore, there still exists a small group of preschool non-readers coming mainly from low-income families. They are at utmost risk for literacy difficulties and failure. However, if these children are frequently read aloud to, they can acquire the necessary language and literacy skills to be able to read. Currently, voluntary welfare organizations, religious bodies, professional associations as well as the National Library Board offer reading support programs for such non-readers. In this study, we investigated the effectiveness of one such reading support program known as Support for Preschool non-Readers (SUPER) for preschool non-readers coming from low-income families. Our findings suggest there are significant improvements in the preschool non-readers’ word knowledge acquired through picture-based vocabulary and word recognition acquired through print and word awareness after going through the 8-month reading support program. However, no significant gender and racial differences are noted.

Low-income families, non-readers, preschool, reading support program