Parent-Child Book Reading as an Intervention Technique for Young Children with Language Delays

Abstract

The effect of instructing parents of children with language delays in effective joint book-reading techniques was compared with language facilitation through more general conversational instruction. Thirty-three children, 3 to 6 years of age, and their mothers participated. Parents receiving a version of Whitehurst's Dialogic Reading Training Program (Whitehurst et al., 1988) increased their use of what/who questions, open-ended questions, imitation, and expansions more than did parents receiving conversational language training. More modest effects were also found for the children, primarily in an increased rate of verbal responses to questions, increased number of different words, and increased Mean Length of Utterance. Parents whose behavior changed following the instruction were more likely to have had children whose language changed, a finding suggesting that the program affects children's development. In addition, correlations between children's pretest level and their change as a result of the treatment suggested that children learn different things from joint book reading at different points in development. On the whole, the results of this investigation of book-reading training suggest that it has considerable potential for facilitating language development with children with language delays, but that stronger interventions, monitored over a longer period of time, are needed.

Reconstrucción grupal de cuentos: una instancia para la producción de narrativa

“…Los resultados del análisis realizado resultan relevantes, no solo para describir los entornos interaccionales y comprender las posibilidades de desarrollo lingüístico y cognitivo que efectivamente los niños encuentran en la escuela, sino también para establecer líneas de acción basadas en el conocimiento del modo en que se puede emplear la lectura de cuentos para que resulte una actividad efectiva para el desarrollo de la producción de narrativa y de las habilidades precursoras de la alfabetización (DALE et al, 1996).…”

“…Entre estas estrategias se destacan el "comentar", que consiste en establecer relaciones entre el contenido del cuento y la experiencia del niño (FEY, 1986;SNOW, NINIO, 1986;DALE et al, 1996), la formulación de preguntas abiertas, la respuesta a las preguntas del niño con otras preguntas, la valoración positiva de los comentarios del niño y algunas estrategias que ya se habían identificado en otros eventos comunicativos -las repeticiones, las reestructuraciones y las expansiones (MEHAN, 1979;CAZDEN, 1991). Whitehurst y sus colaboradores (1988,1999) definieron este modo de abordar la lectura de cuentos como "lectura dialógica" y señalaron que el objetivo de la misma es involucrar a los niños activamente en la lectura e incitarlos a verbalizar durante la misma (ZEVENBERGEN, WHITEHURST, 2003).…”

Increasing Latino Parents’ Verbal Interactions with Their Preschool-Aged Children

“…(Comment and Wait, Ask Questions and Wait, and Respond by Adding More), which teaches caregivers language facilitation techniques around picture book interactions between parents and their children [24]. This model lends itself to all spanish-speaking parentsimportantly including those with low literacy or low-English language skills as its effectiveness in parent's learning to use these techniques and increasing their children's language production has been documented in both English [25] and non-English speaking parent-child dyads [26]. Using this reading method, parents learned to have a conversation about the pictures in the book, with the goal of enhancing verbal exchanges with the child in the parent's native language.…”

An Examination of the Effects of a Summer Book-Reading Program on the Language and Early Literacy Outcomes of Toddlers from High Risk Environments

“…The mean length utterance (or number of consecutive words uttered by the child) was also enhanced by mother's use of dialogic reading (Dale et al, 1996). In one study , findings suggested the dialogic group improved writing and print concepts, but no difference was observed for phonological awareness.…”

“…Results indicated that dialogic reading increased the rate of both the verbal responses and questions asked by participating children. The mean length utterance (or number of consecutive words uttered by the child) was also enhanced by mother's use of dialogic reading (Dale et al, 1996).…”