Co-Principal Investigators: Wilcox, M. Jeanne; Zheng, Yi

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop and pilot test an expanded version of Teaching Early Literacy and Language across the Curriculum (TELL), a preschool curriculum designed to promote differentiated instruction for children with developmental speech and/or language impairments to improve oral language and early literacy skills. The expanded version of TELL, originally designed for 4-year-old children, extended the curriculum down to age 3. Many children with mild to moderate delays or disabilities are not receiving high-quality preschool special education with evidence-based literacy instruction and environments that promote language development. The need for a curriculum that could be feasibly implemented with fidelity by preschool teachers led to the development of the original TELL for 4-year-old children. The results of an IES-supported efficacy trial indicated that children with developmental speech and/or language impairment who received TELL demonstrated significantly more growth in a number of early language and literacy skills (e.g., receptive and expressive vocabulary, print knowledge, phonological awareness) than children in the control group. However, preschool frequently begins at age 3, and these children may experience 2 years of preschool or be in mixed-aged classrooms with 4-year-old children. Thus, this project adapted the TELL curriculum, curriculum-based measures (CBMs), and professional development training to cover a wider developmental range that included 3-year-old children.

Project Activities: The research team developed the intervention in three phases. They adapted the existing curriculum based on feedback from practitioners and a review of professional early learning standards, ran iterative trials of the revised intervention, and conducted a feasibility study. For the pilot study, the team conducted a small randomized controlled trial of the revised TELL curriculum to test its promise for improving the oral language and early literacy skills of 3-year-old children with developmental speech and/or language impairments.

Key Outcomes: The main findings of this project, as reported by the principal investigator, are as follows:

• Teachers implemented TELL with high fidelity with 3-year-old children. There were greater increases in the quality of language and early literacy classroom environments for those teachers in the TELL group compared to the control group during the pilot study.
• There were no statistically significant differences in the oral language or early literacy skills of children in the TELL group compared to those in the control classrooms at the end of the pilot study.
• Professional development training for TELL was implemented with high fidelity.
• COVID-19 school closures impacted the research in several ways, including some aspects of data collection, ability to work in person with teachers for coaching, and in the timeline that 3-year-old children were enrolled in preschool.

Structured Abstract

Setting: The research took place in preschool classrooms (special education classrooms and inclusive classrooms) in Arizona.

Sample: Participants for the development phases included practitioners on the advisory team (4 preschool teachers, 2 administrators, and 1 speech-language pathologist), 13 additional preschool teachers, 2 speech language pathologists, and 51 children with developmental speech and/or language impairment. For the pilot study, 23 preschool teachers and their teaching assistants and 60 3-year-old children with developmental speech and/or language impairment participated.

Intervention: Teaching Early Literacy and Language (TELL) is a curriculum for preschool children with developmental speech and/or language impairment that uses evidence-based strategies to support oral language and early literacy skill development across many classroom activities (e.g., shared book reading, math, science, art). In addition to language, the curriculum focuses on explicit, systematic instruction in code-related skills, including conventions of print, beginning writing, grapheme knowledge, grapheme-phoneme correspondence, and phonological awareness. As part of TELL, teachers use curriculum-based measures (CBMs) to monitor children's oral language and early literacy skill development and to design instructional activities that meet individual children's needs. Teachers and teaching assistants receive professional development through formal training and in-class coaching.

Research Design and Methods: Development of the intervention occurred in three phases. In the first phase, the team surveyed the Advisory Team and additional preschool teachers to determine how well the current TELL curriculum meets the needs of 3-year-old children with speech and/or language impairments and how to improve the curriculum for this age group. In addition, the research team reviewed and revised the curriculum based on how well it met early learning standards, built precursor skills targeted by the Common Core State Standards, and met professional early childhood organization standards. In the second phase, the team conducted field trials of the revised intervention with the advisory team teachers and the speech language pathologist to evaluate their experiences with the curriculum components, CBMs, and professional development training. In the third phase, the research team conducted a feasibility study of the revised intervention with the advisory team and additional preschool teachers to obtain feedback on implementation and satisfaction with TELL. For the pilot study, the research team implemented a small randomized controlled trial of the revised TELL, comparing children in control classrooms to children receiving the TELL curriculum. This evaluated the promise of TELL for improving the oral language and early literacy skills of 3-year-old children with developmental speech and/or language impairments.

Control Condition: For the pilot study, children in the control condition received business-as-usual classroom instruction.

Key Measures: The following child outcomes were assessed using both researcher-developed CBMs and standardized assessments (listed in parentheses): phonological awareness (Preschool Early Literacy Indicators; PELI), alphabet knowledge (PELI), print concepts (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening; PALS-PreK), writing (PELI), and vocabulary (PELI). Teacher outcome measures included observational measures of their use of specific language and literacy teaching strategies, a researcher-developed fidelity checklist, and the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation measure (ELLCO Pre-K). Possible child-level moderators of intervention effects included nonverbal cognitive skills (Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-II), school attendance (school records), home literacy environment (Home Literacy Environment Checklist), and family characteristics (demographic questionnaire). Teacher-level moderator measures included logs of professional development group session attendance, a demographics questionnaire, the Preschool Teacher Literacy Beliefs Questionnaire, and an observational measure of quality of instructional support (Classroom Assessment Scoring System, CLASS pre-K). Teachers also completed surveys to provide feedback on usability and satisfaction with the curriculum (Stages of Concern Questionnaire) and social validity (researcher-developed survey). Coaches used the Procedural Fidelity Checklist to measure TELL teachers' adherence to the curriculum. Fidelity of professional development training and coaching was assessed by researcher-developed measures.

Data Analytic Strategy: For the pilot study, the research team used multilevel modeling to assess the intervention's promise for improving child language and early literacy outcomes. Latent growth curve modeling was used to examine children's growth in the oral language and early literacy skills measured by the CBMs. Researchers used descriptive and qualitative analyses (identification and summary of themes in the feedback data) to evaluate treatment fidelity, usability, and feasibility using data collected from the satisfaction questionnaire, teachers' informal feedback during professional development training activities, and coaches' classroom observations.

Related IES Projects: The Development and Efficacy of a Curriculum-Based Language and Early Literacy Intervention for Preschool Children with Developmental Disabilities (R324E060023); Efficacy Trials with a New Early Literacy and Language Curriculum for Preschool Children with Developmental Speech and/or Language Impairment (R324A110048); Efficacy of the TELL Curriculum for Preschool Children who are Economically Disadvantaged (R305A170068); A Conceptual Efficacy Replication of the TELL Preschool Curriculum with Web-Based Implementation Support and Professional Development Variations (R324A190181)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations:  Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.