Beyond the pages of a book: Interactive book reading and language development in preschool classrooms.

The effects of a book reading technique called interactive book reading on the language and literacy development of 4 yr olds from low-income families were evaluated. Teachers read books to children and reinforced the vocabulary in the books by presenting concrete objects that represented the words and by providing children with multiple opportunities to use the book-related words. The teachers also were trained to ask open-ended questions and to engage children in conversations about the book and activities. This provided children with opportunities to use language and learn vocabulary in a meaningful context. Children who were in the interactive book reading intervention group scored significantly better than children in the comparison group on Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—III and other measures of receptive and expressive language. Book reading and related activities can promote the development of language and literacy skills in young children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accelerating language development through picture book reading: A systematic extension to Mexican day care.

Previous research demonstrates linguistic advances in middle-class 2-yr-olds in the US resulting from training parents to read with their children following a particular style. This style, called dialogic reading, encourages children to talk about picture books and gives them models and feedback for progressively more sophisticated language use. This research extends these procedures to a day-care setting using 20 Mexican 2-yr-olds from low-income backgrounds. Children in the intervention group were read to individually by a teacher using dialogic reading techniques. The control group children were given individual arts and crafts instruction by the same teacher. Effects of the intervention were assessed through standardized language tests and by comparing the children's spontaneous language while they shared a picture book with an adult who was unaware of their group assignment. Differences favoring the intervention group were found on all standardized language posttests and on some measures of language production. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dialogic reading and morphology training in Chinese children: Effects on language and literacy.

This study investigates the effects of parent-child shared book reading and metalinguistic training on the language and literacy skills of 148 kindergartners in Hong Kong. Children were pretested on Chinese character recognition, vocabulary, morphological awareness, and reading interest and then assigned randomly to 1 of 4 conditions: the dialogic reading with morphology training (DR + MT), dialogic reading (DR), typical reading, or control condition. After a 12-week intervention period, the DR intervention yielded greater gains in vocabulary, and the DR + MT intervention yielded greater improvement in character recognition and morphological awareness. Both interventions enhanced children's reading interest. Results confirm that different home literacy approaches influence children's oral and written language skills differently: Shared book reading promotes language development, whereas parents' explicit metalinguistic training within a shared book reading context better prepares children for learning to read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A controlled evaluation of behavior modification with conduct problem children.

Evaluated a behavioral intervention program for conduct problem children with both behavioral and academic difficulties in elementary school. 16 Ss were each assigned to either a treatment or a "no-contact" control group. A standardized 20-hr treatment program involving the child, parents, and the teacher was provided by clinical psychologists. Both observational recordings and teacher ratings of social and academic behavior demonstrated that significantly greater behavioral improvement had occurred for treated than for control children. However, at a 9-mo follow-up, the control group had improved sufficiently that these differences were no longer significant. Although no differences existed between treated and untreated children in achievement test performance (California Achievement Test) or grades at termination, follow-up revealed that the treated Ss had significantly better achievement scores and grades 9 mo after termination. Ratings of therapists by teachers and parents were uniformly positive, and there were no dropouts during the 3-4 mo course of treatment. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effects of a language and literacy intervention on Head Start children and teachers.

A language and literacy intervention was implemented in 10 Head Start classrooms. Teachers were trained in specific book reading and conversation strategies. The focus of the intervention was to train teachers how to increase opportunities for language and vocabulary development in young children. At the end of the year, children in the intervention classrooms performed significantly better than children in the control classrooms on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III and the Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test (3rd ed.). In addition, teachers in the intervention classrooms used strategies that promoted language development during book reading and other classroom activities. Head Start teachers can be trained to implement strategies that have positive effects on children's language and literacy development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Language dysfunction in children with Rolandic epilepsy

Rolandic epilepsy is regarded as the classic example of benign focal epilepsy. However, neuropsychological deficits have been noted in affected children. As Rolandic discharges are mainly distributed over the centrotemporal region, specific interference with language function might be suspected. Therefore, we conducted a standardized neuropsychological assessment in children with Rolandic epilepsy which covered all important aspects of language processing. We measured intelligence Quotient, verbal memory, auditory discrimination, vocabulary, grammar and literacy in 20 children with an active Rolandic focus. Information about performance at school was obtained from teachers by means of a questionnaire. Patients with Rolandic epilepsy failed five of the twelve standardized language tests significantly more often than the normative population and consequently showed impairment of the following functions: reading, spelling, auditory verbal learning, auditory discrimination with background noise and expressive grammar. Thirteen of the 20 children showed language dysfunction with difficulties in two or more of the twelve standardized language tests. In eight of these 13 children the Full Scale Intelligence Quotient was within average range, indicating a specific language deficit. Language dysfunction was closely associated with learning difficulties at school. This study documents a consistent pattern of language dysfunction in children with Rolandic epilepsy which suggests interictal dysfunction of perisylvian language areas.     

Outcomes of an emergent literacy intervention in Head Start.

Classrooms of 4-yr-olds attending Head Start were randomly assigned to an intervention condition, involving an add-on emergent literacy curriculum, or a control condition, involving the regular Head Start curriculum. Children in the intervention condition experienced interactive book reading at home and in the classroom as well as a classroom-based sound and letter awareness program. Children were pretested and posttested on standardized tests of language, writing, linguistic awareness, and print concepts. Effects of the intervention were significant across all children in the domains of writing and print concepts. Effects on language were large but only for those children whose primary caregivers had been actively involved in the at-home component of the program. One linguistic awareness subtest, involving the ability to identify the 1st letter and 1st sound of words, showed significant effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early predictors of biliteracy development in children in French immersion: A 4-year longitudinal study.

English language predictors of English and French reading development were investigated in a group of 140 children who were enrolled in French immersion programs. Children were first tested in kindergarten, and their reading achievement was tested yearly in both English and French from Grades 1 to 3, with word-level and passage-level measures that assessed accuracy as well as fluency. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine which English variables predicted Grade 3 outcomes and growth rates in English and French, and to determine the set of predictors that accounted for the most variance in outcomes and growth rates in English and French reading. The variables that predicted English reading development were consistent with studies of monolingual English children, even though participants were concurrently learning to read in French. Our findings provide evidence that at least some of the skills that play a role in learning to read are general cognitive and linguistic skills that transfer across languages. Phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, rapid automatized naming, and grammatical ability in English were able to predict reading ability in French. In contrast, English receptive vocabulary was a language-specific predictor. These findings demonstrate that first-language measures can be useful in the early identification of children at risk for difficulty in learning to read in a second language. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of a program to teach phonemic awareness to young children: A 2- and 3-year follow-up and a new preschool trial.

This article reports a follow-up study of children in Grades 1 and 2 who had been instructed in phonemic awareness in preschool. Compared to a control condition, the trained children were superior in nonword reading 2 and 3 yrs later and in reading comprehension at 3 yrs. Control children furnished a disproportionate number of readers dependent on sight word reading. The superiority of the experimental condition did not extend to measures of automaticity in reading. W. A. Hoover and P. B. Gough's (1990) "simple view" of reading (Reading Comprehension?=?Listening Comprehension?×?Decoding) was supported. In a supplementary experiment, preschool children were trained with the program by their regular teachers and showed greater progress in aspects of phonemic awareness than the control condition from the main experiment. However, they did not gain as much as those in the more intensely trained experimental condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Growth in literacy and cognition in bilingual children at risk or not at risk for reading disabilities.

This study investigated growth in reading, vocabulary, and memory in children (ages 5 to 10) learning English as a second language identified at risk for reading disabilities (RD). A growth curve analysis showed that RD children were significantly below children not at risk in English and Spanish reading, Spanish short-term memory (STM), Spanish comprehension, and English and Spanish working memory (WM). RD children were also inferior on growth measures of English and Spanish WM and Spanish STM. Growth on measures of Spanish vocabulary, reading, STM, and WM accounted for 12% of the variance in predicting growth in English reading. However, only Spanish measures of WM growth contributed unique variance. The results show that growth in WM in the primary language predicts growth in second-language reading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Speech perception, vocabulary, and the development of reading skills in english among Korean- and English-speaking children.

This study examined the roles of speech perception and phonological processing in reading and spelling acquisition for native and nonnative speakers of English in the 1st grade. The performance of 50 children (23 native English speakers and 27 native Korean speakers) was examined on tasks assessing reading and spelling, phonological processing, speech perception, and receptive vocabulary at the start and end of the school year. Korean-speaking children outperformed native English speakers on each of the literacy measures at the start and end of 1st grade, despite differences in their initial phonological representations and processing skills. Furthermore, speech perception and phonological processing were important contributors to early literacy skills, independent of oral language skills, for children from both language groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Literacy Learning of At-Risk First-Grade Students in the Reading Recovery Early Intervention.

This study investigated the effectiveness and efficiency of the Reading Recovery early intervention. At-risk 1st-grade students were randomly assigned to receive the intervention during the 1st or 2nd half of the school year. High-average and low-average students from the same classrooms provided additional comparisons. Thirty-seven teachers from across the United States used a Web-based system to register participants (n = 148), received random assignment of the at-risk students from this system, and submitted complete data sets. Performance levels were measured at 3 points across the year on M. M. Clay's (1993a) observation survey tasks, 2 standardized reading measures, and 2 phonemic awareness measures. The intervention group showed significantly higher performance compared with the random control group and no differences compared with average groups. Further analyses explored the efficiency of Reading Recovery to identify children for early intervention service and subsequent long-term literacy support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The efficacy of a voluntary summer book reading intervention for low-income Latino children from language minority families.

The effects of a voluntary summer reading intervention with and without a parent training component were evaluated with a sample of low-income Latino children from language minority families. During the last month of 4th grade, 370 children were pretested on a measure of reading comprehension and vocabulary and were randomly assigned to (a) a treatment group in which children received 10 self-selected books during summer vacation, (b) a family literacy group in which children received 10 self-selected books and were invited with their parents to attend 3 summer literacy events (2 hr in length), and (c) a control group. Although children in the treatment group and the family literacy group reported reading more books than the control group, there was no significant effect on reading comprehension and vocabulary. Recommendations for improving the efficacy of the intervention are discussed, including efforts to improve the match between reader ability and the readability of texts and the instructional goals of the family literacy events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-income immigrant pupils learning vocabulary through digital picture storybooks.

Children from immigrant, low-income families in the Netherlands start school with a limited vocabulary in the language of instruction; therefore, this places them at risk for developing reading difficulties. Exposure to books is assumed to reduce their 2nd language (L2) vocabulary disadvantage. In this experiment, we examined the effects of video storybooks on the receptive and expressive vocabularies of 5-year-old children. Children (N = 92) were exposed repeatedly to the digital storybook. The story was presented with either static or video images. Children in the control condition played with a nonverbal computer game. Children's receptive and expressive book-based vocabularies were assessed. Results reveal that children learned words receptively and expressively; however, the children seldom learned the same words both ways. Both treatments benefited receptive and expressive vocabularies; however, readings with the addition of video were found to be especially effective for expressive L2 vocabulary acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A follow-up study of children attending a primary-age language unit

Twenty-seven children of normal non-verbal intelligence and a mean age of 8 years, attending a primary-age language unit, were assessed on measures of language, reading and behavioural adjustment. Three and a half years later, when many of the children had reached secondary school age, they were re-assessed using the same measures. Although mean language and reading age scores had improved, they were still well below age level and the gap between chronological age and language and reading ages had increased. There was also some evidence of increasing behavioural and emotional problems. Children who had moved to mainstream education at follow-up had, on average, higher levels of intelligence and significantly higher scores on language and reading tests than the children who had remained in special education. However, even amongst this group many problems persisted, although few pupils received any additional help in dealing with them.     

The Development of Reading in Children Who Speak English as a Second Language.

Patterns of reading development were examined in native English-speaking (L1) children and children who spoke English as a second language (ESL). Participants were 978 (790 L1 speakers and 188 ESL speakers) Grade 2 children involved in a longitudinal study that began in kindergarten. In kindergarten and Grade 2, participants completed standardized and experimental measures including reading, spelling, phonological processing, and memory. All children received phonological awareness instruction in kindergarten and phonics instruction in Grade 1. By the end of Grade 2, the ESL speakers' reading skills were comparable to those of L1 speakers, and ESL speakers even outperformed L1 speakers on several measures. The findings demonstrate that a model of early identification and intervention for children at risk is beneficial for ESL speakers and also suggest that the effects of bilingualism on the acquisition of early reading skills are not negative and may be positive. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathways to Reading: The Role of Oral Language in the Transition to Reading.

What is the role of oral language in reading competence during the transition to school? Is oral language in preschool best conceptualized as vocabulary knowledge or as more comprehensive language including grammar, vocabulary, and semantics? These questions were examined longitudinally using 1,137 children from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development. Children were followed from age 3 through 3rd grade, and the results suggest that oral language conceptualized broadly plays both a direct and an indirect role in word recognition during the transition to school and serves as a better foundation for early reading skill than does vocabulary alone. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of both theoretical models of early reading and practical implications for policy and assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prediction of children's reading skills using behavioral, functional, and structural neuroimaging measures.

The ability to decode letters into language sounds is essential for reading success, and accurate identification of children at high risk for decoding impairment is critical for reducing the frequency and severity of reading impairment. We examined the utility of behavioral (standardized tests), and functional and structural neuroimaging measures taken with children at the beginning of a school year for predicting their decoding ability at the end of that school year. Specific patterns of brain activation during phonological processing and morphology, as revealed by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) of gray and white matter densities, predicted later decoding ability. Further, a model combining behavioral and neuroimaging measures predicted decoding outcome significantly better than either behavioral or neuroimaging models alone. Results were validated using cross-validation methods. These findings suggest that neuroimaging methods may be useful in enhancing the early identification of children at risk for poor decoding and reading skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The differential effect of storybook reading on preschoolers' acquisition of expressive and receptive vocabulary

The present study was conducted to assess the effect of didactic techniques used during storybook reading on young children's acquisition of new vocabulary introduced in storybooks. Thirty children for each group of three- and four-year-old children were read one storybook individually. The study included three storybook reading conditions: single-reading, repeated-reading and questioning. In both the repeated-reading and the questioning conditions, the storybook was read three times. Children in the questioning condition were asked, during each reading of the storybook, to label target items with the novel words. Listening to multiple readings of a storybook facilitated children's acquisition of expressive and receptive vocabulary, whereas answering questions during the multiple readings was more helpful to the acquisition of expressive than receptive vocabulary. These findings suggest that, under certain conditions, didactic techniques used by adults have differential effects on preschoolers' receptive and expressive vocabulary.     

Precursors of reading skill from infancy to first grade in Finnish: Continuity and change in a highly inflected language.

The course of language acquisition from infancy to public primary school was followed in a sample of 56 Finnish children to examine precursors to reading at first grade. Structural equation modeling of continuity suggested effects from growth in early vocabulary to mastery of inflectional forms at preschool age. The early language directly influenced early phonological awareness (PA) and only indirectly influenced later development in PA and word reading. The course of development in PA progressed from detecting larger multiphonemic units toward recognizing and producing phonemes in words, which, in turn, were positively associated with differences in producing new words by deleting and blending phonemes at kindergarten age. Including word reading before school entry levelled out the influence of the concurrent phonemic awareness factor on reading at first grade. Hence, in a highly inflected language with a transparent orthography, the pathway to reading consisted of skills learned in succession, the last phase being characterized by simultaneous development involving phonemic awareness and emerging reading skill. The finding led to the conclusion that, in addition to universal routes, language- and culture-specific routes to literacy must be acknowledged when searching for the precursors to reading at school age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)