Journal Article

Facilitating Emergent Literacy: Efficacy of a Model That Partners Speech-Language Pathologists and Educators

Weitzman, Elaine, Girolametto, Luigi, Greenberg, Janice

2012

Overview

Purpose: This study examined the efficacy of a professional development program for early childhood educators that facilitated emergent literacy skills in preschoolers. The program, led by a speech-language pathologist, focused on teaching alphabet knowledge, print concepts, sound awareness, and decontextualized oral language within naturally occurring classroom interactions. Method: Twenty educators were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Educators each recruited 3 to 4 children from their classrooms to participate. The experimental group participated in 18 hr of group training and 3 individual coaching sessions with a speech-language pathologist. The effects of intervention were examined in 30 min of videotaped interaction, including storybook reading and a post-story writing activity. Results: At posttest, educators in the experimental group used a higher rate of utterances that included print/sound references and decontextualized language than the control group. Similarly, the children in the experimental group used a significantly higher rate of utterances that included print/sound references and decontextualized language compared to the control group. Conclusion: These findings suggest that professional development provided by a speech-language pathologist can yield short-term changes in the facilitation of emergent literacy skills in early childhood settings. Future research is needed to determine the impact of this program on the children's long-term development of conventional literacy skills. (Contains 4 tables.)

• Publisher: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA),American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
• Subject: Adult / Alphabets / Analysis / Beginning Writing / Canada / Child Care Centers / Child development / Child Language / Child, Preschool / Childhood / Children & youth / Classroom communication / Classrooms / Coaching / Coaching (Performance) / Coding / Comparative Analysis / Control Groups / Development programs / Early childhood education / Early Childhood Teachers / Early Intervention (Education) - methods / Early Intervention (Education) - organization & administration / Early Literacy / Efficacy / Emergent Literacy / Experimental Groups / Feasibility studies / Female / Fidelity / Foreign Countries / Groups / Humans / Inservice Teacher Education / Intervention / Language Acquisition / Language Development / Language Development Disorders - rehabilitation / Language shift / Linguistics / Literacy / Literacy skills / Male / Middle Aged / Native Language Instruction / Nursery Rhymes / Oral Language / Outcome Measures / Pathologists / Phonological Awareness / Practice / Preschool Children / Preschool Teachers / Pretests Posttests / Professional development / Professional Education / Professional training / Program Evaluation / Pupil Personnel Services / Pupil Personnel Workers / Reading / Regular and Special Education Relationship / Schools, Nursery - organization & administration / Skill Development / Skills / Social interaction / Socioeconomic factors / Sound / Speech / Speech Disorders - rehabilitation / Speech Language Pathology / Speech therapists / Speech-language pathologists / Speech-Language Pathology - organization & administration / Spoken language / Staff Development - methods / Staff Development - organization & administration / Story Reading / Teacher Education / Teacher Workshops / Teachers / Teaching / Teaching Methods / Transcripts (Written Records) / Urban Schools / Utterances / Video Technology / Writing / Writing Exercises / Young Adult / Young Children