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Introduction The current study tests if mild perinatal adversities imply increased susceptibility to quality of instruction in early literacy skills. Method In a large-scale experiment ( N  = 981) preschool children were randomly assigned to a digital intervention condition offering guidance and continuous feedback ( Living Letters ) or to a digital control condition that did not contain these features. Effects of the program on short- and long–term literacy outcomes were assessed; for the group as a whole and for children with and without differential susceptibility markers. Results No main effects of the intervention program were found for the group as a whole. Previous findings of susceptibility of children with mild perinatal adversities to Living Letters were not replicated. Further exploration of the data revealed, however, increased susceptibility in children born late preterm. Both directly after the intervention and a year later, children born late preterm outperformed their full term born peers if they had received Living Letters in kindergarten, but fell behind if they had received the control program. Conclusion An extra program that typically provides continuous guidance and feedback can benefit children born late preterm, but does not benefit children born full term. An increased level of stress reactivity is proposed to be the mechanism underlying the susceptibility to the program found in children born late preterm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this randomized controlled trial, 508 5-year-old kindergarten children participated, of whom 257 were delayed in literacy skills because they belonged to the lowest quartile of a national standard literacy test. We tested the hypothesis that some children are more susceptible to school-entry educational interventions than their peers due to their genetic makeup, and thus whether the dopamine receptor D4 gene moderated intervention effects. Children were randomly assigned to a control condition or one of two interventions involving computer programs tailored to the literacy needs of delayed pupils: Living Letters for alphabetic knowledge and Living Books for text comprehension. Effects of Living Books met the criteria of differential susceptibility. For carriers of the dopamine receptor D4 gene seven-repeat allele (about one-third of the delayed group), the Living Books program was an important addition to the common core curriculum in kindergarten (effect size d = 0.56), whereas the program did not affect the other children (d = –0.09). The same seven-repeat carriers benefited more from Living Letters than did the noncarriers, as reflected in effect sizes of 0.63 and 0.34, respectively, although such differences did not fulfill the statistical criteria for differential susceptibility. The implications of differential susceptibility for education and regarding the crucial question “what works for whom?” are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]