Dialogic Reading's Potential to Improve Children's Emergent Literacy Skills and Behavior

Abstract

Young children entering school with poor oral vocabulary skills may be doubly disadvantaged. Their poor oral vocabulary skills will likely impede their attempts to become proficient readers while also possibly increasing the frequency of their problem behaviors. Dialogic reading (DR) is a scientifically validated shared storybook reading intervention that is known to boost at-risk children's oral vocabulary skills. Use of DR is one potential way to help children avoid both later reading failure and the negative outcomes associated with poor behavior. In this article, the authors describe (a) a research-based rationale for using DR and (b) DR's set of procedures and prompts

Keywords:

• behavior problems
• dialogic reading
• reading problems
• storybook reading
• vocabulary intervention