UC Berkeley

Abstract

Vocabulary Development through Shared Storybook Reading with Preschool Parents

by

Mary Kathryn Requa

Doctor of Philosophy in Special Education

University of California, Berkeley

Professor Anne E. Cunningham, Chair

The goal of this study was to examine the efficacy of an intervention designed to teach parents vocabulary learning strategies to incorporate into their storybook reading with their preschool children. The group differences between children whose parents participated in the intervention (treatment group) and children whose parents who did not attend the intervention (comparison group) were tested. Additionally, within the treatment group, parents provided both elaborated and non-elaborated vocabulary instruction to their children. The impact of each type of instruction was examined. Twenty-four target words were selected from four storybooks. Within the treatment group, 12 words were taught using the elaborated technique and 12 words were taught using the non-elaborated method. Word-level analysis was employed to compare differences in treatment children’s acquisition of elaborated (n = 12) and non-elaborated (n = 12) conditions. Finally, the effect of frequency of vocabulary learning (reading storybooks two or four times each week) was also compared between the treatment and comparison groups. Participants in each condition were randomly assigned to read four designated storybooks two or four times each week over the course of four weeks.

Participants included 69 parents and their three- to four-year-old children who attended Head Start preschools. Children were initially matched on pretest measures of verbal ability using the Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test-4th Edition (EOWPVT – 4; Gardner, 2010), a measure of single-word expressive vocabulary, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test–Fourth Edition (PPVT – 4; Dunn & Dunn, 2012), a measure of single-word receptive vocabulary, and then randomly assigned to a treatment or comparison group.

To measure children’s knowledge of 24 target words presented in four pre-selected storybooks, a researcher-designed assessment, Big Words for Little People (BWLP), was used at three different time points; before the intervention, after the intervention, and 14 days following the intervention.

Across three one-hour workshops, parents in the treatment group were taught to implement elaborated vocabulary instruction that emphasized precise definitions, synonyms, and examples of word meanings and non-elaborated vocabulary instruction that emphasized simple, incidental definitions of words during shared storybook reading. Families in the treatment group received four books (one each week) with scripted adhesive labels pasted onto pages of the text where the targeted words first appeared. Six target words appeared in each storybook; parents presented three words in the elaborated instructional method and three words in the non-elaborated method during shared storybook reading interactions. Families in the comparison group received the same storybooks but without adhesive labels, they had no knowledge of the targeted words, and they received no instruction regarding the word learning strategies.

The findings of this research suggest that parents’ participation in the treatment intervention positively enhanced the vocabulary growth of their children compared to the comparison group. Fourteen days following intervention, children of treatment parents demonstrated sustained targeted vocabulary knowledge. No significant differences in the acquisition of targeted vocabulary words between the elaborated and non-elaborated instructional techniques were observed for children of treatment parents. Also, no significant differences were observed between frequency of repeated text exposure (two versus four readings).

In short, results of this efficacy study suggest that an intervention teaching parents to use elaborated and non-elaborated instruction of unfamiliar words during shared storybook interactions with their children is a viable mechanism for fostering vocabulary learning at home in preschool aged children.

Key words: Shared storybook reading, emergent literacy, elaborated and non-elaborated vocabulary instruction, frequency