Teaching Parents of At-Risk Preschoolers to Employ Elaborated and Non-Elaborated Vocabulary Instruction During Shared Storybook Reading

This study examines the influence of a parent workshop intervention on vocabulary acquisition of at-risk preschool children during parent-child shared storybook reading. Sixty-nine parents were randomly assigned to either treatment or control group. In the treatment condition, parents were taught to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of research in childhood education Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 159 - 182
Main Authors Requa, Mary Kathryn, Chen, Yi-Jui Iva, Irey, Robin, Cunningham, Anne E.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Olney Routledge 01.01.2022
Taylor & Francis Inc
Subjects
At Risk Persons
At risk students
Comparative Analysis
Correlation
Disadvantaged Youth
Early literacy
Elaborated and non-elaborated vocabulary instruction
Family Environment
Federal Programs
Intelligence Tests
Intervention
Measures (Individuals)
Parent Child Relationship
Parent Workshops
parent-child home literacy experiences
Parents & parenting
Parents as Teachers
Preschool Children
Reading
Reading Achievement
shared storybook reading
Story Reading
Verbal Ability
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Development
California
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Summary:This study examines the influence of a parent workshop intervention on vocabulary acquisition of at-risk preschool children during parent-child shared storybook reading. Sixty-nine parents were randomly assigned to either treatment or control group. In the treatment condition, parents were taught to implement elaborated vocabulary instruction (definitions, synonyms, and examples) and non-elaborated vocabulary instruction (simple definitions only) during shared storybook reading (SSR). In the control group (stories only), parents read the same storybooks as the treatment families but did not provide direct vocabulary instruction. Children's vocabulary learning was assessed using a researcher-designed assessment, Big Words for Little People (BWLP), at three time points during the study: before, after, and 14 days following the end of the intervention. The results suggest that meaningful explanations of unfamiliar words during parent-child shared storybook reading may be a viable strategy for fostering vocabulary learning, which is critical for later reading achievement.
ISSN:0256-8543
2150-2641
DOI:10.1080/02568543.2021.1931579