Feasible Implementation Strategies for Improving Vocabulary Knowledge of High-Risk Preschoolers: Results From a Cluster-Randomized Trial

Abstract

Purpose Many children begin school with limited vocabularies, placing them at a high risk of academic difficulties. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of a vocabulary intervention program, Story Friends , designed to improve vocabulary knowledge of at-risk preschool children. Method Twenty-four early-childhood classrooms were enrolled in a cluster-randomized design to evaluate the effects of a revised Story Friends curriculum. In each classroom, three to four preschoolers were identified as having poor language abilities, for a total of 84 participants. In treatment classrooms, explicit vocabulary instruction was embedded in prerecorded storybooks and opportunities for review and practice of target vocabulary were integrated into classroom and home practice activities. In comparison classrooms, prerecorded storybooks included target vocabulary, but without explicit instruction, and classroom and home strategies focused on general language enrichment strategies without specifying vocabulary targets to teach. Intervention activities took place over 13 weeks, and 36 challenging, academically relevant vocabulary words were targeted. Results Children in the treatment classrooms learned significantly more words than children in the comparison classrooms, who learned few target words based on exposure. Large effect sizes (mean d = 1.83) were evident as the treatment group averaged 42% vocabulary knowledge versus 11% in the comparison group, despite a gradual decline in vocabulary learning by the treatment group over the school year. Conclusions Findings indicate that a carefully designed vocabulary intervention can produce substantial gains in children's vocabulary knowledge. The Story Friends program is feasible for delivery in early childhood classrooms and effective in teaching challenging vocabulary to high-risk preschoolers. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13158185

Psychometric Properties of a Preschool Language, Literacy, and Behavior Screener

“…Participants were enrolled in two randomized controlled trials that investigated the effects of a vocabulary learning intervention program, Story Friends TM . Participants included 137 children from 19 preschool classrooms for the first study (Kelley et al, 2020) and 176 children from 17 preschool classrooms for the second study (Madsen et al, 2022). All classrooms provided a full-day early childhood program that was funded in part through Florida’s Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) program.…”

“…Vocabulary Learning. Our dataset included vocabulary learning scores of children who participated in two randomized trials of the Story Friends TM vocabulary intervention study (57 children in the experiment condition and 60 children in the control condition) (Kelley et al, 2020;Madsen et al, 2022). These replication studies evaluated the effects of the Story Friends TM vocabulary program on child academic vocabulary learning in preschool classroom settings.…”

“…Each item was rated on a 3-point scale: 0 points were rewarded for an incorrect response, 1 for partial response, and 2 for a correct response. This measure and response scale was widely used in our previous research and by other researchers, and offers advantages compared to other receptive word knowledge measures where children are forced to point a response between given choices (Beck et al, 2013;Kelley et al, 2015Kelley et al, , 2020Madsen et al, 2022). When administering the definitional task, children are asked to demonstrate decontextualized word knowledge that is an indicator of later child academic and language skills (Quinn et al, 2015).…”

Randa Abdel Salam Saad Belal A Gamification-Based Program to Enhance English Vocabulary Learning and Retention among Kindergartners

“…; Zhou andLi (2017);AlNatour and Hijazi (2018);Kara andEveyik-Aydın (2019);Kelley, Barker, Peters-Sanders, Madsen, Seven, Soto, Olsen and Goldstein (2020);Cedeño and Santos (2021);Henderson, van Rijn, James, Walker, Knowland and Gaskell (2021).To document the current research problem, a pilot study was conducted to determine the kindergartners' difficulties with EFL vocabulary learning. The pilot study consisted of an EFL vocabulary test.…”

Programas de leitura compartilhada de histórias e o uso de e-flashcard para a ampliação de vocabulário de crianças pré-escolares

“…Os resultados indicaram que o grupo controle não teve aumento significativo na aprendizagem de vocabulário receptivo, enquanto que os escores do grupo experimental foram superiores no pós-teste, em comparação com o pré-teste e com o grupo controle. Esses dados indicam que estratégias automatizadas de leitura/narração dialógica podem gerar aprendizagem de vocabulário em pré-escolares, como visto também em pesquisas semelhantes que utilizam o mesmo currículo do Story Friends (Kelley et al, 2020;Spencer et al, 2017).…”