The effects of a picture book reading program using video modeling, direct instruction and guided practice on preschool children's literacy development

This dissertation examines the effect of a preschool literacy class on the literacy development of preschool children. The program, entitled Mothers Instilling Literacy in Kids (MILK), sought to impact children's literacy development by improving their language. Program participants resided in a low-income area. All mother participants spoke English as a second language and volunteered to participate in the program with their preschoolers. All child participants attended Oak View Preschool. The six-week intervention occurred during the summer break for one hour a day, Monday though Thursday.;Both treatment and control child participants were given two measures of language proficiency, one standardized and the other non-standarized. The standardized measure, the Preschool Language Scale-3 (PLS-3), was given as a pre- and post-test. The PLS-3 measures two components of children's English language: expressive and receptive. The treatment group made significant gains in both English receptive, expressive and total language scores.;The non-standardized, authentic, measure of language was the joint reading video record of mother and child. The researchers asked the mother-child treatment and control dyads to joint read upon program inception and completion. Treatment participants made significant gains in Spanish word use, correlating positively with the number of queries made to them by their mothers. While control participants made significant gains in the use of English words while joint reading with their mothers, further analysis indicated that the quality of exchanges did little to improve children's language skills. The data suggests the MILK program contributed significantly to improving children's early literacy development by improving their English receptive and expressive language as well as the use of their primary language, Spanish.