Dialogic Reading Intervention

Research project report

HDEV 4120-01
Child Language Development
Professor Jiansheng Guo
Fall 2018

HannaH Fournier
November 17, 2018
 Dialogic Reading Intervention

Introduction:

Can dialogic reading help children’s oral narrative skills? In my research I found that

dialogic reading to children did in fact enhance their oral narrative skills. I feel that this skill will

help children with low income families who maybe cannot afford preschool. By using dialogic

reading at home it can better prepare them for Elementary school and the rest of their lives.

Dialogic reading not only shares that special time of bonding but it also gives them the

opportunity to ask questions and expand their minds without having to pay for preschool.

In dialogic reading, you would not just read to your children but you would engage into

the story by asking them questions and giving them feedback. It is a way to help enhance your

child’s narratives in the way they structure a story and the contents within that story. There are

six techniques: “(a) asking “wh-“ questions (i.e., what, where, when, why, who, which, and how

questions), (b) following correct answers with expansions, (c) repeating what the child says, (d)

helping the child as needed, (e) praising and encouraging more interaction, and (f) shadowing the

child’s interest.” (Whitehurst, Arnold, et al., 1994).

After you get the child to respond to your questions, next is learning how to get them to

expand on their answers. You want to expand on their knowledge of the different levels of

narration. You want to emphasize the structure of the plot by responding to the answer but

adding more of the plot to theirs and also adding more complex language that includes

adjectives.

And lastly would be to get the child to understand the concepts of the story. You would

do this by replacing the ambiguous he pronoun with that of that character’s name in the story.
“There are also 16 target vocabulary and definitions to try to get the children to learn and use

correctly.” (Sénéchal, 1997).

Before starting the dialogic reading intervention, all the children in both groups were

asked to retell the same short story picture book. “This was done to ensure optimal performance

given the evidence suggesting that the retelling of a previously heard narrative is easier than

producing an original novel narrative.” (Hesteth, 2004).

In the past research, they read to children in small groups of just one to four children but

they were always the same children each time. The intervener would read for twenty minutes

twice a week for the length of eight weeks. Only one book was read during each one of these

small group times and each book was red twice. The intervener read each book first once which

took four weeks to finish and then the next/last four weeks read those same eight books over

again. (Hargrave and Sénéchal, 2000).

There were three interveners that were given the task of conducting the sessions. They

figured out that each child was giving them one response to an elaborate question and then an

average of six to seven responses to other questions, at least, per each session These interveners

would provide praise to the children most of the time and used context expansions most often but

also expanded upon the children’s response almost half the time.

According to (e.g., Merritt & Liles, 1989; Nelson, 2007). There was a significant posttest

difference in the narrative tasks and story retelling. There were more mental state references as

well as more contextualized references and more story telling units.

Some limitations for this research was that the groups were so small and to get a better
more accurate account, it would be better to have several more groups and expand out to several

different schools as well. Also having a tighter control and less variability within the groups

would also help raise the effect sizes. Another limitation is not knowing how much the children

‘s knowledge of autobiographical and fictional characters already exists. “The findings obtained

suggest that change in narrative knowledge can occur in a relatively short period of time, but

intervention research on autobiographical narratives with low-SES children would suggest that

changes in narrative knowledge do not occur as quickly“ (Peterson et al., 1999). They do not

know if the autobiographical narrative knowledge and the fictional narrative knowledge are

acquired at the same rate and they do not know if they are influenced by the same types of

interactions. “The very limited and preliminary research suggests that there may be fundamental

differences between the two types of knowledge” (Sénéchal et al., 2008).

For my research on dialogic reading, my goal was to also read the same exact eight books

but was unable to find three of the same ones, but I used the same author and style/type of story

as the original eight. I also read each book for twenty minutes to each of my two groups

separately twice a week. The first four weeks covered all eight books and then the next four

weeks I re-read the same the eight books in the same order I originally read them in.

I chose the age range from 4.4 year old’s to 4.6 year old’s and my goals for splitting the

two groups up was 1) averaging out the two groups age so that the mean age was as close as I

could get them and 2) trying to average out boys and girls as well as nationalities.

When I was reading to the non-dialogic reading group I found it hard for myself to try not

to ask the children questions and to try to almost ignore the children when they tried to ask me a

question. I am so use to interacting while I read and these children already knew me and how I
read. I think in the future I would have to choose 1) a more lower-income school and 2) a school

where the children do not already know me and I can conduct a more accurate intervention.

I also found that after the eight weeks of reading to the two groups that, First, most

children in the non-dialogic group could not get started on re-telling the stories except one child

who really was just pointing out items on the page verse telling me the story. I am not sure if I

just did not explain to the children exactly what I was wanting of them or if they are just so use

to just pointing out what they are interested in that they did not care about re-telling the story.

Second, some of the children in the dialogic group also did not want to re-tell the story even

though I knew that they could. I do not believe in having a child do something that they do not

want to do even though I really needed them to re-tell me the story.

My ending conclusion was that the dialogic group children did give me more details in

re-telling the stories verse to non-dialogic group of children who really just wanted to point out

the pictures and some items on the page. I do not feel that age or nationality played a role in my

findings but I do feel that since I was at a more affluent school where the children tend to already

have a very diverse vocabulary and where the school does reading three different ways everyday

that maybe my results are sort of flat. If I would have gone to a school were the children are from

a lower-economic status and the parents are not as educated and maybe they do not go to

preschool all day or at all then the results would have been more drastic.

Methods:

Participants:

The Early Childhood Center that I did my research project on is in more of an affluent

area. The children in both groups range from 4 years and 4 months to 4 years and 6 months.

In each group there were five children. The first group of children, which I only just read
 them the stories without the dialogic reading, there are four girls and one boy while the

second group, the dialogic reading group, has two boys and three girls. The first groups mean

age is 4.46 and the second groups mean age is 4.48. Group one has an Asian ethnicity a

mixed child of African American and Caucasian ethnicity and three Caucasian ethnicities.

The second group also contains both an Asian and a mix child of African American and

Caucasian plus a child of Latino ethnicity and two Caucasians.

Material:

For my research project I read the same 8 different books to the children in each group.

These stories I chose based on the same criteria of the model research paper and chose them

for their clarity of the easy understanding of the plot and for the pictures. Five of the books

were the exact same as the model and the other three were by the same authors.

Here are the stories I read:

Freeman, D. (1978). A pocket for Corduroy. New York: Puffin Books.

Keats, E. J. (1964). Whistle for Willie. New York: Puffin Books.

Wells, R. (1997). Bunny party. New York: Puffin Books.

Kellogg, S. (1971). Can I keep him? New York: Puffin Books.

Bogan, P. (2000). Bossy flossy. New York: Puffin Books.

Arnold, T. (1987). No jumping on the bed! New York: Puffin Books.

Kimmel, E. A. (1990). My penguin Osbert in love. New York: Puffin Books.

McCloskey, R. (1948). Blueberries for Sal. New York: Puffin Books.

Procedure:

In my research I took ten children and divided them into two groups of five children in

each group trying to get their mean ages as close as possible. Group 1 is the non-dialogic

group and Group 2 is the dialogic group. For each one of the groups I read them the same 8
 books (listed above) for twenty minutes, each book, but I read to each group at separate

times. I read to Group 1 on Mondays and Wednesdays and Group 2 on Tuesdays and

Thursdays.

During the first 4 weeks I read through each one of the books, two books a week. The

next four weeks I reread the same 8 books in the same order, again two books a week for

each group. During Group 1’s reading time I just read them the books trying to get as few

interruptions as possible and not allowing the children to ask questions as well as me

ask/answer questions about the stories. But during Group 2’s reading time is when I asked

the open-ended questions, the who, what, where, when, why and how. I then had the children

expand on their responses but repeating what they answered but then I would add more plot

details or character details as well as more adjectives to my reply. This got them more

interacting with the book and myself and some even starting adding even more to my

expanded a few times for the same question.

Once the eight weeks was finished of me reading to 8 books to the children twice, I then

took one child at a time from both groups and handed them the books one at a time (this took

a few days for each child) and asked them to retell me the stories that I read to them and

pretending that I have never heard these stories before so to try to give me as much about the

story as they can. I did not give any hints or help them to start. If a child could not figure out

where to start or what to say after a little bit of time, I just handed them the next book again

asking them to retell me that story.

Results:

I found that with the non-dialogic children’s group, it was hard for them to get started and

they would just sit there staring at the book and not even wanting to turn the pages or anything. I
am not sure if it was because I was not clear on my intentions of them or if they just did not want

to do it and I never really pushed them too hard, but in this group the model said that if the

children could not start after a minute or so to just move on and to not help them start, so that is

what I did. Below is one child’s re-telling of five of the eight stories:

Kimmel, E. A. (1990). My penguin Osbert in love. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Helicopter

Penguins

More Penguins

Ha ha ha more more penguins

Why are there more penguins?

Look, a bike!

Helicopter, like from here (turns back to page one)

Potty, why are they drinking?

Who’s that? (pointing to girl in the picture)

Helicopter again.

Helicopter with more penguins.

Hearts

Boy is sad.

Penguin hugs.

Helicopter

Arnold, T. (1987). No jumping on the bed! New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

 Toes up there (pointing to the toes)

Bedtime

Jump high

Spaghetti, look meatball (points at the meatball)

More spaghetti, Grandma (pointing to her)

Fishy, and a dragon

Blocks

Purple paint, uh-oh (pointing to the split paint)

Big mess

Bedtime

Freeman, D. (1978). A pocket for Corduroy. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Bear

Bear sitting in that chair (pointing at the chair)

Bear going in bag

Falling down

Bear playing in snow

Good night

Wells, R. (1997). Bunny party. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Bunny and Spider and notes

There is a duck, a duck, a doll a bear (pointing at each while naming them)
 Brushing hair

Big table

There are some numbers (pointing at them)

Bunny and Robot

Bogan, P. (2000). Bossy flossy. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

That girl has weird hair.

There’s her cat, and her baby.

She in bed.

Lots of hats.

Apple and milk.

Sad face (pointing at the face)

Swings.

Kellogg, S. (1971). Can I keep him? New York: Puffin Books.

When I handed this book to this child they put it on their lap flipping through the pages

and randomly talking about what items they saw in the pictures but one they were not talking to

me at this point but talking to themselves and having their own conversation with themselves so I

just enjoyed watching them flipping thru the book and enjoying whatever was going on in their

head.

Keats, E. J. (1964). Whistle for Willie. New York: Puffin Books.

The child was not able to even get started on this book at all.

McCloskey, R. (1948). Blueberries for Sal. New York: Puffin Books.

 The child was not able to even get started on this book at all.

I also found that with the dialogic group they too did not care to re-tell the stories, again I

am not sure if my intentions were not clear or if they did not want to do it. Again the model did

not want you to help them start and I also do not like to push kids into doing anything that they

do not want to do. But with this group I know that they could re-tell the stories because I heard

them doing it with their friends at other times during the day, so it seemed it at the time I was

asking them to re-tell for me they just did not feel like it.

Kimmel, E. A. (1990). My penguin Osbert in love. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Boy with his helicopter. Osbert came to door from Santa with note. All the penguins went

upstairs, they read the note. So they pointed at the world. They went for a helicopter ride. They

all had to go potty and wait turns. They put on silly hats and saw a girl. Helicopter flying in the

snow. Helicopter landing in the snow. Osbert loves a penguin and they belly slide. That’s silly.

Penguins wait in more lines. The boy is sad. He found Osbert and gave him hugs. Helicopter

flies in the air. Bye-bye.

Arnold, T. (1987). No jumping on the bed! New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Boy jumping on the bed. Dad says No jumping on the bed. Boy stops. He jumps on the

bed and falls. He lands in spaghetti meatball on head. Then lays in spaghetti. Boy lands in the

fish tank. Boy jumps in boxes. Boy crashes blocks. Falling down. Oops, paint on head and foot.

Back in his bed.

 Freeman, D. (1978). A pocket for Corduroy. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

There is Corduroy. They are at a clothes washing place. Corduroy jumps down off chair.

He looks in bag. The girl can’t find him. He got all wet and he slipped in soap. He fell asleep.

The girl finds him and gives him a note.

Wells, R. (1997). Bunny party. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

That’s Max, and his sister. His spider shoots jelly beans, ha ha. His sister writing letters.

His sister has lots of toys and Max has not a lots of toys. Max wants to play with his robot. They

sit at the table. 1..2..3..5..6..7..9..10.. (pointing at each number while they say it). Max pulled the

dolls hair. He put his toy in a chair. And he is eating chocolate. Grandma comes over. She eats

ice cream.

Bogan, P. (2000). Bossy flossy. New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

Flossy was bossy. She bossy her cat and her baby. Flossy goed to her room. Flossy bossy

her paint and her friends. She bossy the food lady. She went to time-out. Flossy saw a boy on the

swings. He bossy her and they yell a lot. Had to go to time-out. They are friends.

Kellogg, S. (1971). Can I keep him? New York: Puffin Books.

Child: (while flipping thru each page)

This child proceeds to tell me while they are flipping thru all the pages that this book is
too long and boring and they do not like it.

Keats, E. J. (1964). Whistle for Willie. New York: Puffin Books.

The child was not able to even get started on this book at all.

McCloskey, R. (1948). Blueberries for Sal. New York: Puffin Books.

The child was not able to even get started on this book at all.

Discussion:

I found that reading to children in a dialogic reading, that it does enhance children’s oral

narrative skills. I found also that the more I got the children to respond, I was then also able to

get them to expand on their responses and even in some cases we got so involved in just one or

two pages of the book that the twenty minutes of time flew by so quickly. And often times when

I was reading to the dialogic group, they would ask me to read another story or two. They were

having so much fun getting to talk and point and be involved in their stories. I did also find that

the non-dialogic reading group did want to be/get more involved in the book but soon found that

I was “ignoring them” so they would try to just listen as much as they could and then after I was

done they too would ask me to read another story to them. By reading to both of these groups, it

seemed to want to get me to read more and more to them. Maybe because they are used to

getting books read to them every day or maybe because they liked to get to learn more about the

book and the characters and the plot and setting.

The only problem that I found with my research is where the school is located and the

children being from very diverse and upper-class economies and parents with higher educations.

I think that my results would have been more successful if I would have gone to a low-income

preschool or even to low-income homes of parents who cannot afford child care and who also
never got a college education. I feel that teaching this group of parents to dialogic reading, that

those children would benefit the most seeing as they would not be getting their oral skills from a

preschool setting. I feel that by having the parents learn how to ask specific questions about

either the plot or setting or characters in the story, having their children respond to these

questions and then asking more questions to expand on their answers will help their children

learn on their own their oral narrative skills as well as expand their thinking all around. By

having children engage in their own thoughts and ideas as much as possible and the younger they

start learning this the easier it will come to them when they get older.

Conclusion:

By having children being read dialogically they start to expand and learn their oral

narrative skills as well as expand their thinking. By parents or teachers or nannies asking the

who, what, where, why and how questions to get the children’s minds thinking and expanding,

soon they will be the ones asking those questions on their own accord so that they can try to

learn not just about oral narrative skills but also for every subject and everyday life.

I love reading to children and my goal is always to get them as involved as possible and I

learned to not just get them involved by reading silly and asking the silly question, but to also

ask the more complex questions and get them to expand on their responses. I do feel to some

extent that the more complex questions are more for pre-Kindergarteners and up. Children are

always wanting to play and learn and one way to play and interact with young children is by

reading to them.
References:

Hargrave, A. C., & Sénéchal, M. (2000). A book reading intervention with preschool children
who have limited vocabularies: The benefits of regular reading and dialogic reading. Early
Childhood Research Quarterly, 15, 75-90.

Hesket, A. (2004). Grammatical performance of children with language disorder on structured

elicitation and narrative tasks. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics, 18, 161-182.

Merritt, D. D., & Liles, B. Z. (1989). Narrative analysis: Clinical applications of story generation
and story retelling. Journal of Speech & Hearing Disorders,, 54, 438-447.

Nelson, K. (2007). Young minds in social worlds: Experience, meaning, and memory.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Peterson, C., Jesso, B., & McCabe, A. (1999). Encouraging narratives in preschoolers: An
intervention study. Journal of Child Language. 26, 49-67.

Sénéchal, M. (1997). The differential effect of storybook reading on preschoolers’ acquisition of

expressive and receptive vocabulary. Journal of Child Language, 24, 123-138.

Sénéchal, M., Pagan, S., Lever, R., & Ouellette, G. (2008). Relations among the frequency of
shared reading and 4-year-old children’s vocabulary, morphological and syntax
comprehension, and narrative skills. Early Education and Development, 19, 27-44.

Whitehurst, G. J., Arnold, D. S., Epstein, J. N., Angell, A. L., Smith, M., & Fischel, J. E.,
(1994). A picture book reading intervention in day care and home for children from low-
income families. Developmental Psychology, 30, 679-689.