Barbara Wasik

The purpose of this project is to develop Story Talk-Kindergarten (ST-K), a multifaceted intervention that will support teachers through training and coaching to use evidence-based book reading and extension activities to increase vocabulary knowledge in low-income kindergartners. Kindergarten is a critical year in children's learning to read. Many children in high-need schools require additional support in developing vocabulary, a significant predictor of reading. This project addresses a g...

The purpose of this project is to develop Training Teachers to Teach Vocabulary (T3V), a professional development (PD) intervention to support early childhood classroom teachers in using evidence-based instructional practices to improve vocabulary knowledge among young children at risk for communication difficulties (CD). Vocabulary development is a key predictor of children's success in learning to read and in school more generally. Although research has identified effective teaching practi...

Spoken language competence is a foundation needed for developing reading skills. Upon entering school, low-income children lag behind their more affluent peers in spoken language skills and experience more difficulty learning to read. This project aims to translate the considerable body of basic research on early vocabulary development into a highly feasible and effective classroom intervention that can be used with low-income preschoolers, called Story Talk. This book reading intervention ...