Providing Extra Supports for Language and Literacy Development to Struggling Learners in Preschool

• Published in: NHSA dialog Vol. 12; no. 3; pp. 210 - 226
• Main Authors: Smith, Sheila, Murphy, Doug, Dennis, Sarah, Davidson, Sherry, Light, Rebecca
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Routledge 25.08.2009
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; At Risk Students; Early Intervention; Early Reading; Emergent Literacy; Federal Programs; Individualized Education Programs; Performance Factors; Preschool Evaluation; Program Descriptions; Program Effectiveness; Speech Language Pathology
• ISSN: 1524-0754
• DOI: 10.1080/15240750903075263

Preschool teachers face increasing pressure to ensure that "all" children acquire the competencies they need to start on the path to becoming successful readers in the early grades, including children who may enter preschool with exceptionally weak skills. This article describes efforts to provide individually tailored supports to relatively high-risk learners in classrooms that participated in a federal Early Reading First project. It presents methods used to identify and monitor the progress of struggling learners, provide additional supports to these children, and support teachers in their work with high-risk learners. The article also presents findings from the project evaluation that suggest the potential benefits of targeted supports, coupled with a high-quality curriculum, for high-risk learners' language and literacy development and factors that may contribute to children's response to extra learning supports. Last, the article discusses both promising and challenging features of the interventions used and directions for future research that is needed to refine and rigorously assess this model. (Contains 4 figures, 4 tables and 1 footnote.)