An Investigation of the Additive Benefits of Parent Dialogic Reading Techniques in Older Preschool Children

This study examined the additive benefit of parent dialogic reading techniques in older, high-risk preschool children using multiple baseline design across participants, a single subject research design, as was as well as pre-test and post-test measures. Five preschoolers age-eligible to begin kindergarten the following school year participated. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-4) and Expressive Vocabulary Test, Second Edition (EVT-2) were administered pre-intervention and post-intervention implementation. Consistent with multiple baseline design, all students received weekly progress monitoring using the Picture Naming (PN) Individual Growth and Development Indicator (IGDI) throughout the entire investigation. Caregivers received in-person video-based training in dialogic reading techniques. They were then directed to implement dialogic reading strategies within their homes when reading with their children a minimum of three times per week for fifteen minutes per session over a six-week intervention period. It was hypothesized that children receiving home-based dialogic reading support would demonstrate greater expressive and receptive vocabulary skills than those participating in preschool program alone. Visual analysis of graphic data within conditions and between adjacent conditions was utilized to analyze the research questions. Results of the study supported the hypotheses but did not confirm them. Children who received home-based dialogic reading support demonstrated expressive and receptive vocabulary skill growth but no abrupt change occurred immediately after introducing the dialogic reading intervention

Fostering Broad Oral Language Skills in Preschoolers from Low SES Background

Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and eectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster broad oral language skills in preschoolers (N = 69; Mean age = 5.5, SD = 4 months) coming from low-SES families. Moreover, it was analyzed whether children’s initial vocabulary mediates the intervention’s responsiveness. Results have shown that children in treatment group obtained greater gains than children in control group in almost all intervention-based measures. There is also some evidence for the generalizability of the intervention to other skills not directly trained during the intervention. Moreover, it was found that children’s initial vocabulary mediates the intervention’s responsiveness showing that children with high vocabulary made greater gains in higher-level components of language comprehension, whereas children with low vocabulary made higher gains in vocabulary. Taken together, our findings suggest that a relatively brief, but quite intensive narrative-based intervention, may produce improvements on broad oral language skills in preschoolers from low-SES backgrounds

Fostering Broad Oral Language Skills in Preschoolers from Low SES Background

Socioeconomic disparities increase the probability that children will enter school behind their more advantaged peers. Early intervention on language skills may enhance language and literacy outcomes, reduce the gap and, eventually, promote school readiness of low-SES (Socioeconomic Status) children. This study aimed to analyze the feasibility and effectiveness of a brief narrative-based intervention (treatment vs. control group) aimed to foster broad oral language skills in preschoolers (N = 69; Mean age = 5.5, SD = 4 months) coming from low-SES families. Moreover, it was analyzed whether children's initial vocabulary mediates the intervention's responsiveness. Results have shown that children in treatment group obtained greater gains than children in control group in almost all intervention-based measures. There is also some evidence for the generalizability of the intervention to other skills not directly trained during the intervention. Moreover, it was found that children's initial vocabulary mediates the intervention's responsiveness showing that children with high vocabulary made greater gains in higher-level components of language comprehension, whereas children with low vocabulary made higher gains in vocabulary. Taken together, our findings suggest that a relatively brief, but quite intensive narrative-based intervention, may produce improvements on broad oral language skills in preschoolers from low-SES backgrounds

Headsprout Early Reading for Students At Risk for Reading Failure

This study examined the efficacy of using Headsprout Early Reading (Headsprout, 2007) to supplement a balanced literacy curriculum for kindergarten and first grade students in a suburban public school system. Headsprout, which is an example of computer aided instruction (CAI), provided internet-based, supplemental reading instruction that incorporates the five critical components of reading instruction cited by the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000). The school system implemented Headsprout as a standard protocol, Tier 2 intervention within their Response to Intervention (RTI) process. The study included kindergarten and first grade students from across the school system who were identified as at risk for reading failure based on fall Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy (DIBELS) scores. Kindergarten and first grade students identified as at risk for reading failure who participated in Headsprout were compared with matched groups of kindergarten and first grade students who did not participate in Headsprout. Overall, neither kindergarten nor first grade students who participated in Headsprout gained meaningful educational benefit from the CAI instruction provided by Headsprout beyond the benefit they received from participating in the general education, RTI Tier 1, balanced literacy curriculum that was available to all kindergarten and first grade students

Complex spatial language improves from 3 to 5 years: The role of prompting and overhearing in facilitating direction giving using between and middle.

The primary goal of this study was to specify age-related improvements in young children’s use of the complex spatial terms between and middle in response to prompting and overhearing supports. Three- to 5-year-old children described the location of a mouse hidden between two furniture items in a dollhouse. Three prompting conditions (Between Directive, Middle Directive, Nondirective) were compared with two overhearing conditions (Overhearing Between, Overhearing Middle). Children’s use of between and middle was much more frequent in response to directive prompting than in response to nondirective prompting or overhearing. Only 4-5-year-old children showed some evidence of using middle in response to nondirective prompting and overhearing, demonstrating developmental gains in sensitivity to subtle cues. The secondary goal was to assess young children’s production and comprehension of between and middle using tasks suitable for young children and parent report checklists. As expected, children’s spatial language showed strong developmental improvement and was related to direction-giving performance

Rethinking Pedagogical Use of Eye Trackers for Visual Problems with Eye Gaze Interpretation Tasks

Eye tracking technology enables the visualisation of a problem solver's eye movement while working on a problem. The eye movement of experts has been used to draw attention to expert problem solving processes in a bid to teach procedural skills to learners. Such affordances appear as eye movement modelling examples (EMME) in the literature. This work intends to further this line of work by suggesting how eye gaze data can not only guide attention but also scaffold learning through constructive engagement with the problem solving process of another human. Inferring the models’ problem solving process, be it that of an expert or novice, from their eye gaze display would require a learner to make interpretations that are rooted in the knowledge elements relevant to such problem solving. Such tasks, if designed properly, are expected to probe or foster a deeper understanding of a topic as their solutions would require not only following the expert gaze to learn a particular skill, but also interpreting the solution process as evident from the gaze pattern of an expert or even of a novice. This position paper presents a case for such tasks, which we call eye gaze interpretation (EGI) tasks. We start with the theoretical background of these tasks, followed by a conceptual example and representation to elucidate the concept of EGI tasks. Thereafter, we discuss design considerations and pedagogical affordances, using a domain-specific (chemistry) spectral graph problem. Finally, we explore the possibilities and constraints of EGI tasks in various fields that require visual representations for problem solving