Hear and Say Reading with Toddlers

OVERVIEW

A community-based dialogic reading intervention that engages the child was implemented among an educationally-diverse sample of parents and young children. Parents were randomly assigned to one of three instructional methods in dialogic reading: 1) in-person instruction with videotaped explanation presented to small groups of parents; 2) self-instruction by videotape with telephone coaching; and, 3) self-instruction by videotape alone.  In an experimental evaluation of the intervention, researchers found that instruction resulted in more than a four-fold increase in parents’ dialogic reading behaviors and had significant positive effects on children’s language use during shared reading. When analyses were stratified by parents’ education and instructional method (in-person vs. self-instruction), there was a significant difference favoring in-person instruction as the more efficacious method of instruction, especially for parents with high school education.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Parents of pre-school children aged 2-3

Dialogic reading is an evidence-based intervention to promote the language skills of young children. The content of the intervention was based on the program “Dialogic Reading for Two- and Three-Year Olds” as described by Whitehurst and his colleagues (Whitehurst et al., 1988). The instructional video used in the present study was “Hear and Say Reading with Toddlers” (Huebner, 2001), a 16.5-min videotape developed to explain dialogic reading to parents and early childhood educators and encourage daily reading using the dialogic style. The program has two sessions.  In Session I, parents are instructed to reduce reading behaviors that minimize or exclude the child’s verbal participation, and increase verbal behaviors that invite and maintain the child’s active participation in telling the story. In Session II, parents are shown how to increase two additional reading behaviors, verbal expansions and open-ended questions that help children build more sophisticated sentence-level skills.  

The groups were conducted by a community resident who reviewed and modeled the techniques demonstrated on the video.

Parents assigned to the self-instruction with telephone follow-up group received the instructional video and a children’s book by mail along with a letter stating a staff member would telephone them in approximately one week to “see how the new reading style is working out and answer any questions.”

Parents assigned to self-instruction only (i.e., without telephone follow-up) received the instructional video and a children’s book by mail along with a letter instructing them to view Part I of the tape, to try those reading techniques for four weeks, and then view Part II for tips that build on Part I.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Huebner, C. E., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2005). Intervention to change parent-child reading style: A comparison of instructional methods. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 296-313.

Evaluated population: 112 parents participated in the study; 6 were fathers and 106 were mothers. The average years of education of mothers and fathers included some college, however, 21% of the study mothers and 35% of the fathers had no additional schooling beyond high school. The majority of the parents were white, and most lived with a spouse partner

Approach: Parents were randomly assigned to one of three instructional conditions: in-person instruction with instructional video; self-instruction by video with telephone follow-up, and self-instruction by video alone. Parents randomly assigned to the in-person group with an instructor in small groups of two to six parents.

Data were collected at pretest and posttest.  Measured outcomes included: 1) parent dialogic reading ratio; b) child verbosity; and c) child’s longest five utterances.

Results: Comparison of parent-child reading before and after instruction in dialogic reading showed instruction was associated with large and significant differences in reading style for all three groups.  That is, analyses show no significant differences in uptake of dialogic reading by instructional method. Parents assigned to self-instruction (with or without telephone follow-up) reported they watched the video, and at post-test, their dialogic reading score was significantly higher than at baseline. Additionally, instruction by mailing the video worked, even without telephone follow-up.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

Huebner, C. E., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2005). Intervention to change parent-child reading style: A comparison of instructional methods. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26, 296-313.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 2- and 3-year olds

Evaluated participant grades: pre-school

Program age ranges in the guide: early childhood

Program components: parent or family component; early childhood education

Measured outcomes: education & cognitive development

Program information last updated on 11/3/2008.