| Dialogic reading is a shared reading activity meant to engage children in oral interaction during reading, using elaborative questioning techniques. The impact of an 8-week biweekly dialogic reading intervention on oral narrative skills was analyzed. Forty English-speaking senior kindergarten children, recruited from schools in low income neighborhoods, were assigned to either the intervention or control group. Intervention children attended 15 minute shared reading sessions in small groups. Control children received a non-reading based alternative treatment. ANCOVA results found that intervention children's posttest narratives scored significantly better on structure and context measures than the control group's, but results differed depending on whether narratives were produced or retold. No significant group differences were found on measures of language complexity or cohesion. Intervention children also showed expressive vocabulary gains. Overall, the study adds to the growing literature that interactive shared reading interventions can improve oral language skills of children from low income areas. |
