Journal Article

Embodied Action Scaffolds Dialogic Reading

Foltz, Sarah, Glenberg, Arthur M., Wall, Danielle, Kupfer, Anne

2022

Overview

Might dialogic reading require previous or concurrent embodied activities to be effective? Twenty-nine preschool children, ages 3–5 years, were randomly assigned to the control condition (children listened to a story eight times), the dialogic-then-embodied condition (children engaged in dialogic reading for four readings and then embodied action was added), or the embodied-then-dialogic condition. The embodied action required the child to act out components of the story using toys. Adding embodied action increased story recall, vocabulary acquisition, and positive affect (with generally large effect sizes). Thus, embodied action in conjunction with dialogic reading provides an effective model for promoting early literacy skills. We discuss the possibility that all benefits of dialogic reading come about through embodied processes.

• Publisher: Springer US,Springer,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Action / Activities / Analysis / Child and School Psychology / Control Groups / Dialogs (Language) / Early literacy / Education / Educational Psychology / Educational Technology / Effect Size / Embodiment / Emergent Literacy / English / Independent Reading / Influence of Technology / Intervention Study / Language Acquisition / Learning and Instruction / Listening / Literacy / Literacy skills / Parent Child Relationship / Phonological Awareness / Phonology / Positive emotions / Preschool Children / Psychological Patterns / Reading / Reading Aloud to Others / Reading Comprehension / Reading Difficulties / Reading Skills / Reading Strategies / Recall (Psychology) / Standard Spoken Usage / Vocabulary / Vocabulary development / Vocabulary learning / Vocabulary Skills / Word Recognition