Preschool Children’s Use of Thematic Vocabulary During Dialogic Reading and Activity-Based Intervention

Abstract

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the expressive use of thematic vocabulary by three preschool children with developmental delays during Dialogic Reading, a shared book reading intervention, and Activity-Based Intervention, a naturalistic play-based teaching method. The design was replicated across two early childhood themes. For each theme, five vocabulary words were randomly assigned to Dialogic Reading, Activity-Based Intervention, or a control condition. Intervention was delivered 2 times per day for 5 days across 2 weeks. Results suggest both methods increased children’s use of target vocabulary and were similarly effective for increasing expressive use of thematic vocabulary by preschoolers with disabilities.

Dialogic Reading in Early Childhood Settings: A Summary of the Evidence Base

“…The fidelity assessment methods varied significantly, including unobtrusive observations by the researchers to ensure strategy use (Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000;Lever & Sénéchal, 2011;Tsybina & Eriks-Brophy, 2010), interactive observations during which researchers offered feedback (Fleury & Schwartz, 2017), and use of reading or video viewing logs to specifically track whether the DR strategies were implemented (Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000;Lever & Sénéchal, 2011).While other researchers reported use of some of the same strategies, it was not for the purposes of fidelity information (e.g., Huebner, 2000;Sim, Berthelsen, Walker, Nicholson, & Fielding-Barnsley, 2014;Towson & Gallagher, 2014). Researchers in six studies were explicit in describing how strategies were measured (Blom-Hoffman et al, 2007;Fleury et al, 2014;Fleury & Schwartz, 2017;Lonigan et al, 1999;Rahn et al, 2016;Tsybina & Eriks-Brophy, 2010), often using video or audio recording of reading sessions to capture data for coding and IOA. Examples of measurement included requiring at least two prompts of each type (i.e., CROWD) be used during each book reading (Fleury et al, 2014), implementing seven different prompt types per book reading (Blom-Hoffman et al, 2007), and ensuring at least three prompts per target word were implemented each session (Tsybina & Eriks-Brophy, 2010).…”

“…SCRD study rigor. Of the four studies, three utilized multiple baseline design while one used an alternating treatment design (Rahn et al, 2016). One of the studies had stable baseline (Fleury & Schwartz, 2017).…”

Using Digital Texts in Interactive Reading Activities for Children with Language Delays and Disorders: A Review of the Research Literature and Pilot Study

“…A wide variety of interventions to address early literacy skills in children with language delays and disorders have been investigated, including phonological awareness interventions, 11,12 shared or interactive book reading, 13,14 sight word instruction, 15,16 vocabulary instruction, 17 and print awareness interventions. 18,19 Remediation, however, is often challenging.…”

Comprehending Science Writing: The Promise of Dialogic Reading for Supporting Upper Elementary Deaf Students

“…DR also seems effective for children with disabilities. Targeted vocabulary knowledge has been shown to improve after DR instruction for a generalized group of children with disabilities (Towson et al, 2016) as well as for children with developmental disabilities (Rahn et al, 2016), autism (Fleury & Schwartz, 2017), and those considered at risk of reading difficulty (Morgan & Meier, 2008). Although minimal research has examined outcomes for children with disabilities outside of vocabulary acquisition, there is some evidence that DR can improve participation during a book reading session for children with autism (Fleury & Schwartz, 2017).…”