Facilitating children's emergent literacy using shared reading: A comparison of two models

This paper investigates early home literacy practices and their influence on preschool children's literacy and reading development. In particular, two recently developed Australian home literacy interventions are reviewed that were based on a parent shared reading and dialogic reading framework. While both interventions facilitated preschool children's reading development and parent involvement, each intervention had a different focus. One of the interventions was designed for children with language delays and it concentrated on motivating book reading. The second intervention was designed for children with a family history of reading disability, and this intervention concentrated more on children's alphabetical and phonological awareness development, along with home reading. The strategies used for both interventions have the potential to be incorporated into mainstream early childhood literacy education and tuition

Dutch home-based pre-reading intervention with children at familial risk of dyslexia

Children (5 and 6 years old, n = 30) at familial risk of dyslexia received a home-based intervention that focused on phoneme awareness and letter knowledge in the year prior to formal reading instruction. The children were compared to a no-training at-risk control group (n = 27), which was selected a year earlier. After training, we found a small effect on a composite score of phoneme awareness (d = 0.29) and a large effect on receptive letter knowledge (d = 0.88). In first grade, however, this did not result in beneficial effects for the experimental group in word reading and spelling. Results are compared to three former intervention studies in The Netherlands and comparable studies from Denmark and Australia

Intervenção precoce em escolares de risco para a dislexia: revisão da literatura

TEMA: intervenção precoce em escolares de risco para a dislexia. OBJETIVO: este estudo tem por objetivo geral mapear os artigos publicados sobre intervenção com escolares de risco para dislexia e, como objetivos específicos, analisar descritivamente aspectos específicos dos textos. CONCLUSÃO: as publicações na área em relação ao tema não são constantes, porém, os artigos científicos analisados evidenciam a preocupação dos pesquisadores em elaborar, desenvolver e validar instrumentos de avaliações e intervenções que contribuam para a identificação precoce da dislexia.BACKGROUND: early intervention in students at risk for dyslexia. PURPOSE: this study aims to map the general articles on intervention with students at risk for dyslexia and specific objectives, descriptively analyzing specific text aspects. CONCLUSION: there are few published data on this issue; however, the reviewed scientific articles highlight the concern of the researchers to elaborate, develop and validate assessments and interventions that contribute to the early identification of dyslexia.Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Universidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Filosofia e CiênciasUniversidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Departamento de Fonoaudiologia e Programa de Pós-Graduação em EducaçãoUniversidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Filosofia e CiênciasUniversidade Estadual Paulista Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências Departamento de Fonoaudiologia e Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educaçã

Early Intervention in the Home for Children at Risk of Reading Failure

Early identification of children who are at risk of developing specific reading disability has long been regarded as being crucial for successful remediation (Snow, Burns and Griffin, 1998). However, such identification must lead to immediate intervention if there is to be any benefit for the child. In addition, the intervention should be directly related to the weaknesses identified, well-grounded in theory, effective and easy to administer. The focus of the current study is on identifying children at-risk before the first years of formal schooling. The reasoning behind this is that such children are very capable of overcoming their disadvantages before formal schooling, with the assistance of their families (Fielding-Barnsley, 2000; Jordan, Snow and Porche, 2000). The intervention in this study was based on a method developed by Arnold and Whitehurst (1994), and Whitehurst, Arnold, Epstein, Angell, Smith and Fischel (1994) known as dialogic reading. Dialogic reading involves families reading with their children rather than to their children

Competencies that underpin children's transition into early literacy

Understanding the competencies that underpin children's transition into early literacy is the main aim of this paper which explores four elements: (i) children's language development; (ii) their alphabetical knowledge as an indicator of initial reading; (iii) their in-class behaviour; and (iv) their socio-economic status (SES). Two studies are reported. The first is based on a cohort of end of preschool Queensland children from low SES communities (n=157) and their expressive and receptive language development and their level of in-class behaviour using the Rowe and Rowe Behavioural Rating Inventory (1997). The second study is a significant extension of the first, involving a cross section of SES school children starting Year 1 (n=457) and a more detailed measure of in-class behaviour using the SWAN Rating Scale for Attention (Swanson et al., 2005). The pattern of results demonstrated an inter-relationship between children's language levels, in-class behaviour, and initial reading development and the impact SES has on these factors. The implications for literacy practice and theory are discussed

Responding to the challenge of transitioning children into effective literacy

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Comparative effectiveness of phonological awareness and oral language intervention for children with low emergent literacy skills

This paper reports the results of an intervention aimed to develop language and phonological awareness skills in children with low emergent literacy skills. A group of 457 children (mean age 70.6 months) from a range of SES schools was screened using measures of rhyme and alphabet knowledge in their first few weeks of formal schooling. Of the original group 27% (N =125) were selected for further testing based on their scores on these assessment items. This group was assessed on expressive and receptive language, home literacy and parents’ education levels. This cohort of 125 children was divided into 2 groups: 96 were selected for intervention based on their language assessment, 29 were selected as an at-risk control. A further 31 children who were not at-risk were selected as class controls. The remainder of the original sample of 457 (N= 301) was also included in a post test of spelling accuracy. The experimental group of 96 children was randomly assigned to receive 8 hours of either language or phonological awareness intervention. Post test results demonstrated both intervention groups made significant gains on measures of encoding (spelling) compared to the class at-risk control group with the phonological awareness group showing an advantage over the language group. Intervention targeting both language and phonological awareness skills are both effective in countering the effects of low emergent literacy skills

Social learning, language and literacy

This article supports the claim that there are strong interactive links between children's language development, cognitive reasoning and their success in school achievement. These links are best facilitated within a social learning framework where children's language and talk is encouraged, accepted and respected. This talk is the most authentic place to begin the adult dialogue with children that is purposeful and designed to build the vocabulary, concepts and understandings of the topic being taught. Marion Blank's level of language analysis is explored along with suggestions to enhance children's level of expressive and receptive language. Blank's strategies have been shown to enhance children's literacy achievement as well as their ability to settle into a positive learning environment

Facilitating young children's language and vocabulary development using a cognitive framework

Young children’s proficiency in English and their vocabulary development are predictors of their early school achievement. This paper reviews general guidelines and activities that can facilitate young children’s receptive and expressive vocabulary and language development. While vocabulary development is an essential element in children using language to enhance their reasoning, it is only one element of a set of elements that connect children’s language and reasoning together. From this perspective, Marion Blank (2002) has theorized four levels of language and reasoning that are hierarchical and that can be progressed using child and adult dialogue and talk. Examples are presented on how these four levels can be incorporated into early childhood learning settings

Language Delays, Reading Delays, and Learning Difficulties: Interactive Elements Requiring Multidimensional Programming

Researchers have hypothesized four levels of instructional dialogue and claimed that teachers can improve children's language development by incorporating these dialogue levels in their classrooms. It has also been hypothesized that enhancing children's early language development enhances children's later reading development. This quasi-experimental research study investigated both of these hypotheses using a collaborative service delivery model for Grade 1 children with language difficulties from a socially and economically disadvantaged urban community in Australia. Comparing the end-of-year reading achievement scores for the 57 children who received the language intervention with those of the 59 children in the comparison group, the findings from this research are supportive of both hypotheses. The interrelationships between learning difficulties, reading difficulties, and language difficulties are discussed along with children's development in vocabulary, use of memory strategies and verbal reasoning, and the need for multidimensional programming