A dialogic storybook-based intervention integrating dialogic storybook reading with early literacy activities is studied with a longitudinal quasi-experimental study design. The effects of this intervention, in addition to a regular early childhood education (ECE) program, on kindergartners’ vocabulary and phonological awareness development are analyzed for children from different backgrounds. Results indicated that the intervention may be effective in stimulating expressive vocabulary development. With regard to receptive vocabulary and phonological awareness measures, the intervention seems to have a similar effect to using a regular ECE program. The intervention had a similar effect for all children. Findings suggest that an active participation, in which the children are encouraged to talk about language, seems to be beneficial to enhance children’s language use; this aspect might be elaborated in existing or future ECE programs. The intervention can be used to help children from underprivileged families to gain language skills to ensure an optimal start of formal education in Grade 1.
AramD. (2006). Early literacy interventions: The relative roles of storybook reading, alphabetic activities, and their combination. Reading and Writing, 19, 489-515.
2.
BiemondH.HillenJ.VerhoevenL. (2005). Implementatie en evaluatie van het programma interactief taalonderwijs. Een onderzoeksverslag [Implementation and evaluation of the programme “interactive language education.” A research report]. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Expertisecentrum Nederlands.
3.
BlokH.FukkinkR. G.GebhardtE. C.LesemanP. P. M. (2005). The relevance of delivery mode and other programme characteristics for the effectiveness of early childhood intervention. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 29, 35-47.
4.
BowlesR. P.GrimmK. J.McArdleJ. J. (2005). A structural factor analysis of vocabulary knowledge and relations to age. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 60B, 234-241.
5.
BurgerK. (2010). How does early childhood care and education affect cognitive development? An international review of the effects of early interventions for children from different social backgrounds. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 25, 140-165.
6.
BusA. G.van IJzendoornM. H. (1999). Phonological awareness and early reading: A meta-analysis of experimental training studies. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91, 403-414.
7.
Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek. (2012). Jaarrapport integratie 2012 [Year report integration 2012]. Den Haag, The Netherlands: Author.
8.
ClevelandG.KrahinskyM. (2003). Financing ECEC services in OECD countries. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: University of Toronto Scarborough.
9.
CorversJ.AarnoutseC.PetersS. (2004). Interactief voorlezen in groep 2 [Dialogic reading in kindergarten]. Pedagogische Studiën, 81, 308-324.
10.
CoyneM. D.SimmonsD. C.Kame’enuiE. J.StoolmillerM. (2004). Teaching vocabulary during shared storybook readings: An examination of differential effects. Exceptionality, 12, 145-162.
11.
CurentonS. M.CraigM. J.FlaniganN. (2008). Use of decontextualized talk across story contexts: How oral storytelling and emergent reading can scaffold children’s development. Early Education and Development, 19, 161-187.
12.
Darling-HammondL.BransfordJ.LePageP.HammernessK.DuffyH. (2005). Preparing teachers for a changing world: What teachers should learn and be able to do. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
13.
DeBruin-PareckiA. (2009). Establishing a family literacy program with a focus on interactive reading: The role of research and accountability. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36, 385-392.
14.
DempsterA. P.LairdN. M.RubinD. B. (1977). Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the EM algorithm. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, 39, 1-38.
15.
DroopM.PetersS.AarnoutseC.VerhoevenL. (2005). Effecten van stimulering van beginnende geletterdheid in groep 2 [Effects of stimulating early literacy in kindergarten]. Pedagogische Studiën, 82, 160-180.
16.
Effective Provision of Preschool Education. (2008). Influences on children’s attainment and progress in key stage 2: Cognitive outcomes in year 6 (Research Report DCSF-RR048). London, England: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
17.
FukkinkR.VeenA.van GelderenA. (2005). De Taallijn-VVE in de praktijk. Inhoudsanalyse van de materialen en een veldstudie met interviews en observaties [Language route in practice. Content analysis and a field study through interviews and observations]. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: SCO-Kohnstamm Instituut.
18.
HargraveA. C.SénéchalM. (2000). A book reading intervention with preschool children who have limited vocabularies: The benefits of regular reading and dialogic reading. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 15, 75-90.
19.
HartB.RisleyT. R. (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American Educator, 27(1), 4-9.
20.
HindmanA. H.WasikB. A.ErhartA. C. (2012). Shared book reading and Head Start preschoolers’ vocabulary learning: The role of book-related discussion and curricular connections. Early Education and Development, 23, 451-474.
21.
HoffE. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary development via maternal speech. Child Development, 74, 1368-1378.
22.
IBM Corp. (2010). IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19.0. Armonk, NY: Author.
23.
JusticeL. M.McGintyA. S.CabellS. Q.KildayC. R.KnightonK.HuffmanG. (2010). Language and literacy curriculum supplement for preschoolers who are academically at risk: A feasibility study. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 41, 161-178.
24.
JusticeL. M.MeierJ.WalpoleS. (2005). Learning new words from storybooks: An efficacy study with at-risk kindergartners. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 36, 17-32.
25.
JusticeL. M.PullenP. C. (2003). Promising interventions for promoting emergent literacy skills: Three evidence-based approaches. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 23, 99-113.
26.
LoniganC. J.PurpuraD. J.WilsonS. B.WalkerP. M.Clancy-MenchettiJ. (2013). Evaluating the components of an emergent literacy intervention for preschool children at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 114, 111-130.
27.
MarulisL. M.NeumanS. B. (2010). The effects of vocabulary intervention on young children’s word learning: A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 80, 300-335.
28.
MolS. E.BusA. G.de JongM. T. (2009). Interactive book reading in early education: A tool to stimulate print knowledge as well as oral language. Review of Educational Research, 79, 979-1007.
29.
MolS. E.BusA. G.de JongM. T.SmeetsD. J. H. (2008). Added value of dialogic parent–child book readings: A meta-analysis. Early Education and Development, 19, 7-26.
30.
Nap-KolhoffE.van Schilt-MolT.SimonsM.SontagL.van SteenselR.VallenT. (2008). VVE onder de loep. Een studie naar de uitvoering en effectiviteit van voor- en vroegschoolse educatieve programma’s [ECE investigated. A study on the implementation and effectiveness of Early Care and Education programmes]. Tilburg, The Netherlands: IVA beleidsonderzoek en advies.
31.
NicolayA.-C.PonceletM. (2013). Cognitive abilities underlying second-language vocabulary acquisition in an early second-language immersion education context: A longitudinal study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 115, 655-671.
32.
NoresM.BarnettW. S. (2010). Benefits of early childhood interventions across the world: (Under) investing in the very young. Economics of Education Review, 29, 271-282.
33.
PerfettiC. A.HartL. (2002). The lexical quality hypothesis. In VehoevenL.ElbroC.ReitsmaP. (Eds.), Precursors of functional literacy (pp. 189-213). Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
34.
PungelloE. P.IrukaI. U.DottererA. M.Mills-KoonceR.ReznickJ. S. (2009). The effects of socioeconomic status, race, and parenting on language development in early childhood. Developmental Psychology, 45, 544-557.
35.
SchrootenW.VermeerA. (1994). Studies in Meertaligheid 6: Woorden in het basisonderwijs: 15.000 woorden aangeboden aan leerlingen [Words in primary education: 15,000 words offered to students]. Tilburg, The Netherlands: Tilburg University Press.
36.
SénéchalM.OuelletteG.RodneyD. (2006). The misunderstood giant: On the predictive role of early vocabulary on future reading. In DickinsonD. K.NeumanS. B. (Eds.), Handbook of early literacy (Vol. 2, pp. 173-184). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
37.
SénéchalM.ThomasE.MonkerJ. (1995). Individual differences in 4-year-old children’s acquisition of vocabulary during storybook reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 87, 218-229.
38.
SijtstraJ. (1998). Taalonderwijs op de basisschool. Een stand van zaken. Raamplan, deel I [Language education during primary school. The state of affairs. Master scheduling, part 1]. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Expertisecentrum Nederlands.
39.
SnijdersT. A. B.BoskerR. J. (2012). Multilevel analysis: An introduction to basic and advanced multilevel modeling (2nd ed.). London, England: SAGE.
40.
StokesS. F.KleeT. (2009). Factors that influence vocabulary development in two-year-old children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 50, 498-505.
41.
TsybinaI.Eriks-BrophyA. (2010). Bilingual dialogic book-reading intervention for preschoolers with slow expressive vocabulary development. Journal of Communication Disorders, 43, 538-556.
42.
van Druten-FrietmanL.GijselM. A. R. C.DenessenE.VerhoevenL. (2014). Het effect van ‘Taallijn’ op de woordenschatontwikkeling van peuters [The effect of “Language Route” on preschoolers’ vocabulary development]. Pedagogische Studiën, 91, 383-396.
43.
Van ElsäckerW.van der BeekA.HillenJ.PetersS. (2006). De Taallijn. Interactief taalonderwijs in groep 1 en 2 [Language Route. Interactive language education in kindergarten]. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Expertisecentrum Nederlands.
44.
van TuijlC.LesemanP. P. M.RispensJ. (2001). Efficacy of an intensive home-based educational intervention programme for 4- to 6-year-old ethnic minority children in the Netherlands. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 25, 148-159.
45.
VeenA.RoeleveldJ.HeurterA. (2010). Onderwijs en opvang voor jonge kinderen. Studie in opdracht van de Onderwijsraad [Education and childcare for young children. Study commissioned by the Dutch Education Council]. Den Haag, The Netherlands: Onderwijsraad.
46.
VerhoevenL.VermeerA. (2006). Verantwoording Taaltoets Alle Kinderen (TAK) [Justification language test for all children]. Arnhem, The Netherlands: Cito.
47.
VigilD. C.HodgesJ.KleeT. (2005). Quantity and quality of parental language input to late-talking toddlers during play. Child Language Teaching & Therapy, 21, 107-122.
48.
VloedgravenJ.KeuningJ.VerhoevenL. (2009). Screeningsinstrument Beginnende geletterdheid. Handleiding [Screening instrument early literacy. Manual]. Arnhem, The Netherlands: Cito.
49.
WasikB. A.HindmanA. H. (2011). Improving vocabulary and pre-literacy skills of at-risk preschoolers through teacher professional development. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103, 455-469.
50.
WhitehurstG. J.ArnoldD. S.EpsteinJ. N.AngellA. L.SmithM.FischelJ. E. (1994). A picture book reading intervention in day care and home for children from low-income families. Developmental Psychology, 30, 679-689.
