Familjehemsföräldrars erfarenheter av Paired Reading med placerade barn
Lästräning utifrån nytta och nöje
The academic underachievement of looked after children is well known. By involving foster carers in a Paired Reading intervention a Swedish project tried to address this issue, replicating a successful British trial. The aim of my thesis was to study the variations in the foster carers? experiences of this literacy intervention. Reading reports from 100 children were collected and qualitative interviews with 15 foster parents were analyzed using concepts from motivational psychology. The results revealed that although some had reported difficulties a majority of the participants had implemented the program in an acceptable way. Many carers had noticed improvements in the child?s reading ability and some reported improved relations, but in a few cases rigidly following the method had led to conflicts. The interviews showed that the completion of the literacy training was conditioned on the children?s pleasure/joy in reading which in turn may require adjustments in the day-to-day delivery of the intervention. Also carers had to see a purpose with Paired Reading in order to be able to arouse enthusiasm in the child. The results suggest that it is possible to engage foster parents in the improvement of foster children?s literacy skills.