Language and Literacy

1. Language and Literacy  Early Childhood Professionals as the Vital Link

2. Painting the Picture Over 1/3 of the children in the US enter school unprepared to learn (Whitehurst) They lack oral language (vocabulary knowledge, syntactic knowledge, narrative understanding) or print knowledge or phonological processing or a combination.

3. Painting the Picture Children�s emergent literacy skills are highly stable -- indicating that children who start behind are likely to stay behind. There are effective interventions for improving children�s emergent literacy skills.

4. Painting the Picture Educational strategies using these intervention techniques can be used to help children at-risk for reading problems become ready to read and ready to learn.

5. What is Emergent Literacy? Involves the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that are developmental precursors to conventional forms of reading and writing (Whitehurst and Lonigan, 1998) Basic building blocks for learning to read and write

6. Emergent Literacy Begins developing in early infancy and childhood through PARTICIPATION with adults in meaningful activities involving talking and print - the key is the interaction between the adult and child.

7. Emergent Literacy - Domains that Connect to Later Reading and Writing Skills Oral language Print Knowledge Phonological Processing

8. Emergent Literacy Research shows that these three skills, measured when children are in preschool, predict how well the children will be reading in the first grade.

9. Growth and Stability of of Emergent Literacy in At-Risk Preschool Children Children from low language/low literacy backgrounds are at risk of later reading difficulties because of overall slower development of emergent literacy skills and the high degree of stability of these skills In the absence of effective interventions children from low language/literacy backgrounds are unlikely to arrive at school ready to benefit from reading instruction.

10. Research-based interventions for children at risk for later reading problems Phonological Sensitivity (rhyming, matching sounds, blending) Dialogic Reading Combined Intervention

11. Comprehensive Pre-Literacy Interventions Interventions targeting separate emergent literacy skills (oral language, phonological sensitivity) can be effective. Data suggest, however, that emergent literacy skills are relatively modular Long-term dialogic reading effects do not extend to decoding Phonological processing and print awareness skills -- and not oral language -- predict early decoding

12. Dialogic Reading Dialogic reading is a shared-reading intervention designed to promote the development of oral language skills. Dialogic reading involves several changes in the way adults typically read books in children. When most adults share a book with a young child, they read and the child listens. Central to these changes is a shift in roles. During shared-reading, the adults read and children listen �

13. Dialogic Reading In dialogic reading the child learns to become the storyteller. The adult assumes the role of an active listener Asking questions Adding information Prompting the child to increase the sophistication of descriptions of the material in the picture book

14. Dialogic Reading Children�s responses to the book are encouraged through praise and repetition, and more sophisticated responses are encouraged by expansions of the child�s utterances and by more challenging questions from the adult reading partner.

15. Dialogic Reading Variations in instructional routine with : Two and three year olds Four and five year olds

16. Dialogic Reading Dialogic reading for children who are talkers, but not yet pre-readers (typically two and three year olds) is based on three main techniques: Asking what questions Asking open-ended questions Expanding on what the child says

17. Dialogic Reading These techniques are designed to teach vocabulary and encourage children to tell more complete descriptions of what they see.

18. Dialogic Reading The goals of the program are: To help parents/teachers increase the number of times they ask children to name objects in the pictures. To help parents/teachers to start using more general questions as a way of getting children to say more than one word

19. Dialogic Reading �WORKS! Children who have been read to dialogically are substantially ahead of children who have been read to traditionally on tests of language development. Children can jump ahead by several months in just a few weeks of dialogic reading.

20. Dialogic Reading A large scale longitudinal study of the use of dialogic reading over a year of a Head Start program for 4-year-olds showed large effects on oral language skills at the end of Head Start that were maintained through the end of kindergarten.

21. PEER and CROWD Dialogic Reading With Preschoolers This method involves: 1) a way of interacting with preschoolers while discussing books - called the PEER sequence 2) five types of prompts to use during the interactions - called CROWD.

22. PEER is the key! With dialogic reading the adult helps the child become the teller of the story. The adult becomes the listener, the questioner, the audience for the child. No one can learn to play the piano by listening to someone else play. Just like no one can learn to read just by listening to someone else read - must be actively involved

23. PEER Sequence P parent or adult initiates or prompts an exchange about the book E Evaluate the children�s response E Expands the child�s response R Repeats the initial question to check that the child understands the new learning.

24. Prompt the child. How do you do it? Ask the child a question or invite the child to talk about something on the page. You can prompt the child to name an object on the page or talk about something in the story. How does it help? Focuses attention, engages the child in the story, helps the child understand the plot, and builds vocabulary.

25. Evaluate what the child says. How do you do it? Think about what the child says? Is the answer correct? What information can you add?

26. Expand on what the child says. How do you do it? Add a few words to the child�s response. In some cases, gently provide the correct response. How does it help? Encourages the child to say just a little bit more than he or she could on their own. It builds vocabulary.

27. Repeat How do you do that? Ask the child to repeat the expanded or correct utterance. How does it help? Encourages the child to use language.

28. CROWD Questions C Completion questions about the structure of language used in the book. The child fills in the blank (Sentence completion) R Recall questions relate to the story content of the book. O Open-ended questions to increase the amount of talk about a book and to focus on the details of the book.

29. CROWD W �Wh� questions to teach new vocabulary D Distancing questions that help the child bridge the material in the book to their real-life experiences. The CROWD questions are for older preschoolers. Use only wh and open-ended questions for 2 and 3 year olds.

30. Completion How do you do it? Ask the child to complete a word or phrase. Completion questions are often used in books that rhyme. Ask the child to supply a repeated refrain such as �not by the hair of my chinny, chinny chin.� How does it help? Encourages the child to listen to and use language.

31. Recall How do you do it? Ask the child the details about what happens in the story. Ask the child what the characters do. How does it help? Builds a sense of story. Helps children recall details.

32. Open-ended How do you do it? Ask the child to tell what is happening in the picture. How does it help? Provides an opportunity for the child to use language.

33. Wh prompts How do you do it? Point to something in the picture and ask the child to name the object or action. How does it help? Builds vocabulary.

34. Distancing How do you do it? Ask questions that relate something in the story to the child�s life. How does it help? Helps the child make connections between the book and life. Provides an opportunity for children to use language.

35. PEER and CROWD The PEER sequence and CROWD principles always operate within the larger principles of following the child�s interests, expecting slightly more of the child each time through the book and keeping interactions light and fun.

36. Dialogic Reading: Facts in Evidence Facilitates the language development of families from all SES levels Effects are present whether it is the teacher or parent who reads with the child Effects are greatest when it occurs both in preschool and at home

37. Dialogic Reading: Facts in Evidence Dialogic reading is superior to a play-based language facilitation intervention for enhancing the language skills of preschoolers with language delays Children with language delays spoke more, increased their MLU and increased their vocabulary diversity during shared reading with an adult trained in dialogic reading

38. Dialogic Reading: Facts in Evidence Has most substantial effect on oral language development, but did impact development of print concepts and writing. Some language-delayed 4-5 year olds may need one-on-one reading interactions in order to make substantial gains in their language skills through dialogic reading (may not have enough opportunities to practice language use.)

39. Dialogic Reading : The facts in Evidence Researchers have noted that language delayed children benefit from a pause after questions were asked to allow for sufficient time for child to respond before the adult verbalizes again.

40. Parent-child and Teacher-child dialogic reading outcomes Parent-child dialogic reading may affect children�s use of descriptive language more than teacher-child dialogic reading. Teacher-child dialogic reading may affect children�s vocabulary acquisition more than parent-child dialogic reading.

41. Challenges to Implementation Difficult for teachers to integrate small-group dialogic reading sessions into their curriculum. It appears that teachers may find it difficult to ask children open-ended questions in the context of the small-group dialogic reading.

42. Challenges to Implementation If children do not receive many opportunities, they are not likely to show many gains in their language ability, but may still make gains in other emergent literacy areas (e.g. knowledge of print concepts). Parent�s ability to adhere to a home dialogic reading interventions.

43. The future is in our hands � Given the obstacles faced by children who begin school with delayed language and emergent, practices and research in the area of dialogic reading (shared-reading) must continue!

44. Dialogic Reading Pilot project state-wide with speech-language pathologists Read Together, Talk Together kits A possibility that will be made more powerful through teaming!