The Effect of a Narrative Intervention on Preschoolers\u27 Story Retelling and Personal Story Generation Skills

Narration, or storytelling, is an important aspect of language. Narrative skills have practical and social importance; for example, children who tell good stories receive attention and approval from their peers. When children accurately recount events surrounding an injury or dispute, vital information is passed to parents and teachers. Additionally, early childhood narrative skills are moderately correlated with reading comprehension in primary grades. Because narration is socially and academically valued, language interventionists often address it. The research literature on narrative intervention has most often included school-aged participants and those with language or learning difficulties. Only a small number of studies have investigated narrative intervention with preschoolers, and the supporting evidence is suggestive rather than conclusive. Outcomes frequently targeted include narrative story grammar (e.g., character, problem, action, consequence) and general language outcomes (e.g., length of story, mean length of communication unit, and total number of words). Results have been generally positive; however, the methodological quality of studies is poor. Therefore, few firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the efficacy of narrative interventions. Because of its potential and popularity, the effect of narrative intervention on a range of populations needs to be examined systematically through high quality research. This study evaluated the effects of a narrative intervention on story retelling and story generation using a multiple baseline design with five target participants. We delivered narrative intervention in a small group arrangement. Materials, activities, and instructor assistance were adjusted systematically within session to facilitate increasingly independent practice of story retells and personal story generations. Results suggest that narrative intervention improved participants\u27 narrative retell and personal generation performance based on Index of Narrative Complexity (INC) scores. All five target participants made substantial gains in narrative retelling, demonstrated improved pre-intervention to post-intervention INC scores for personal generations, and these improvements maintained when assessed following a 2-week break. In addition, we documented growth in general language measures such as number of communication units, mean length of utterance, number of different words, and total number of words

Sociometric Change as a Function of Classwide Peer Tutoring

Classwide peer tutoring (CWPT) procedures have been shown to substantially increase academic performance. Other positive outcomes, incidentally observed, include enhanced prosocial behaviors and increased appropriate interactions among peers. This study examined the direct effects of a CWPT program on peer relations and academic performance. A mixed first- and second-grade general education classroom participated in a CWPT spelling intervention with a comparable control classroom. The study consisted of three phases-Baseline (4 weeks), Intervention (6 weeks), and Follow-up (4 weeks). Dependent measures included sociometric peer rating scales and spelling test scores. Results were analyzed by determining mean change for each participant and each social status group for both experimental and control classrooms. The data indicate that CWPT positively influenced students\u27 peer acceptance and improved spelling performance

Indices of Narrative Language Associated with Disability

Narratives skills are associated with long-term academic and social benefits. While students with disabilities often struggle to produce complete and complex narratives, it remains unclear which aspects of narrative language are most indicative of disability. In this study, we examined the association between a variety of narrative contents and form indices and disability. Methodology involved drawing 50 K-3 students with Individual Education Programs (IEP) and reported language concerns from a large diverse sample (n = 1074). Fifty typically developing (TD) students were matched to the former group using propensity score matching based on their age, gender, grade, mother’s education, and ethnicity. Narrative retells and generated language samples were collected and scored for Narrative Discourse and Sentence Complexity using a narrative scoring rubric. In addition, the number of different words (NDW), subordination index (SI), and percentage of grammatical errors (%GE) were calculated using computer software. Results of the Mixed effect model revealed that only Narrative Discourse had a significant effect on disability, with no significant effect revealed for Sentence Complexity, %GE, SI, and NDW. Additionally, Narrative Discourse emerged as the sole significant predictor of disability. At each grade, there were performance gaps between groups in the Narrative Discourse, Language Complexity, and SI. Findings suggest that difficulty in Narrative Discourse is the most consistent predictor of disability

Maximizing Conversational Independence

Clinical Question: Can an intervention strategy whose research was done with one population be used effectively with a different population for the same purpose? Method: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis Study Sources: Google Scholar, Academic Search Premier Search Terms: initiation, script, script fading, language impairment, social communication, social interaction, conversation, and spontaneous Number of Included Studies: 8 Number of Participants: 18 Primary Results: 1) Six of the eight studies reviewed were of acceptable quality. 2) Based on percent of non-overlapping data calculations, script training was found to be effective or very effective. 3) The body of script training research included six acceptable quality studies conducted by four sets of researchers across four geographical locations and with 18 participants. Conclusions: The research evidence indicates that script training interventions enhance the conversational independence of children with autism; however, there is no evidence to suggest it will be effective for a different population. Nonetheless, a thorough examination of the match between client characteristics and participant characteristics may help determine whether an intervention is appropriate for a client who has not been represented in the research literature. In addition, clinicians who apply interventions to populations that have not been included in research should rely on their professional judgment and clinical expertise to make reasonable implementation decisions and use progress monitoring results to inform subsequent clinical decisions

Multi-tiered Narrative Intervention for Preschoolers: A Head Start Implementation Study

This implementation study examined the efficacy and feasibility of a multi-tiered narrative intervention when Head Start teachers and teaching assistants delivered all of the interventions and progress monitoring probes. In six Head Start classrooms, 105 children were assigned to receive the intervention or to receive their typical instruction. Children who attended the three classrooms that implemented the multi-tiered intervention showed significantly better story retelling and language comprehension skills than the children who attended preschool in the control classrooms. Additional questions addressed the feasibility of a multi-tiered system in Head Start classrooms. Findings indicate that Head Start teachers and teaching assistants can deliver large group, small group, and individual lessons with adequate fidelity; they can administer brief progress monitoring probes with fidelity and score children’s retells reliably. Furthermore, as teachers and teaching assistants become more comfortable with the procedures, they report greater self-efficacy, and overall, greater feasibility of a multi-tiered model in their classrooms

Using Transfer of Stimulus Control Technology to Promote Generalization and Spontaneity of Language

Children with autism often use newly acquired language in restricted contexts and with limited variability. Instructional tactics that embed generalization technology have shown promise for increasing spontaneity, response variation, and the generalized use of language across settings, people, and materials. This case example explores the integration of textual scripts and explicit engineering of transfer of stimulus control procedures to facilitate functional conversation skills of a young girl with autism. The generalized use of prepositions, coordinating conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions was assessed within the context of natural conversation with teachers, parents, and peers. The intentional programming of training contexts has the potential to impact language spontaneity, generalization, and variability without relying on script fading conventions

Identifying early literacy learning needs: Implications for child outcome standards and assessment systems

Using the landmark National Early Literacy Panel (NELP) Report as a starting point, this accessible book breaks the report down into key takeaways, recommends future directions in policy and practice, and tackles emerging issues and new research not addressed in the NELP report

Evaluating the Validity of Systematic Reviews to Identify Empirically Supported Treatments

The best available evidence is one of the three basic inputs into evidence-based practice. This paper sets out a framework for evaluating the quality of systematic reviews that are intended to identify empirically supported interventions as a way of summarizing the best available evidence. The premise of this paper is that the process of reviewing research literature and deriving practical recommendations is an assessment process similar to the assessment process that we use to understand student performance and derive educational recommendations. Systematic reviews assess the quality and quantity of evidence related to a particular intervention and apply standards to determine whether the evidence is sufficient to justify an endorsement of the intervention as empirically supported . The concepts and methodological tools of measurement validity can be applied to the systematic review process to clarify their strengths and weaknesses. This paper describes ways in which these concepts and tools can be brought to bear on systematic reviews, and explores some of the implications of doing so

Best Available Evidence: Three Complementary Approaches

The best available evidence is one of the three critical features of evidence-based practice. Best available evidence is often considered to be synonymous with extremely high standards for research methodology. However, this notion may limit the scope and impact of evidence-based practice to those educational decisions on which high quality intervention research is plentiful and definitive leaving educators with little guidance on the majority of the decisions they face. If the mandate to use best available evidence is taken to mean that educators should use the best of the evidence that is available, then evidence-based practice can address virtually all educational decisions. This paper discusses three complementary approaches to identifying the best available evidence and deriving recommendations from research. These include (a) conducting systematic reviews to identify empirically supported treatments, (b) using methods other than systematic reviews to summarize evidence, and (c) considering research on treatments that are not multi-component packages. A conscientious combination of these approaches can increase the breadth of research that is relevant to educational decision-making

Predicting Reading Problems 6 Years Into the Future: Dynamic Assessment Reduces Bias and Increases Classification Accuracy

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine how well a kindergarten dynamic assessment of decoding predicts future reading difficulty at 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade and to determine whether the dynamic assessment improves the predictive validity of traditional static kindergarten reading measures. Method: With a small variation in sample size by grade, approximately 370 Caucasian and Hispanic students were administered a 3-min dynamic assessment of decoding and static measures of letter identification and phonemic awareness at the beginning of kindergarten. Oral reading fluency was then assessed at the end of Grades 2–5. In this prospective, longitudinal study, predictive validity was estimated for the Caucasian and Hispanic students by examining the amount of variance the static and dynamic assessments explained and by referring to area under the curve and sensitivity and specificity values. Results: The dynamic assessment accounted for variance in reading ability over and above the static measures, with fair to good area under the curve values and sensitivity and specificity. Classification accuracy worsened when the static measures were included as predictor measures. The results of this study indicate that a very brief dynamic assessment can predict with approximately 75%–80% accuracy, which kindergarten students will have difficulty in learning to decode up to 6 years into the future. Conclusion: Dynamic assessment of decoding is a promising approach to identifying future reading difficulty of young kindergarten students, mitigating the cultural and linguistic bias found in traditional static early reading measures