Project Activities
Children will be administered a battery of language, literacy and achievement tests at four time points to determine the immediate and longer term effects of the interventions (i.e.- pre intervention, post intervention, kindergarten follow-up, and first grade follow-up). Teacher reported measures of behavior, social skills, and classroom relationships will be collected. The differential effects will be examined for the (1) OWL (a curriculum specifically designed to provide instruction in early literacy skills); (2) OWL + Enhanced Milieu Teaching (an individualized naturalistic communication intervention designed to teach specific language skills in the context of every day activities); and (3) Creative Curriculum (a general curriculum model which is widely used in Head Start). Data will be analyzed using HLM techniques with a systematic examination of child, teacher, and classroom quality factors that moderate the effects of the interventions. In addition, growth curves for language and early literacy skills will be derived using Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI).
Structured Abstract
Setting
The Head Start programs are located in Alabama.
Sample
Approximately 480 children in 60 Head Start classrooms will participate in this research. Of these children, 120 will have IEPs; 240 will have very low language as identified by Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III) scores two standard deviations below national norms; and120 will have low language and behavior problems as identified by low PPVT scores and high problem behavior scores on the Social Skill Rating System (SSRS) behavior subscale.
Two interventions are being evaluated and compared to the Creative Curriculum control condition: (1) Opening the World of Learning (OWL) and (2) OWL + Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT).
The OWL intervention is a published curriculum designed for use in preschool classrooms to support all aspects of child development. Language and literacy related skills are central to the content of the curriculum. Daily activities are emphasized in large group book reading, thematically related small and large group activities, and teacher-child interactions during center times, meals, and outdoor play. OWL provides teachers with detailed rubrics for teaching in small groups and centers, guidelines for behaviors to observe during activities, and suggestions for ways to adjust activities to meet individual child needs.
The EMT intervention is a hybrid intervention technique that utilizes principles of environmental arrangement, responsive interaction, and incidental teaching to teach language to children with moderate to severe language delays. In everyday conversational interactions with children, adults arrange the environment to provide activities of interest, promote child engagement and communication, and prompt child production of target language in functional contexts.
Research design and methods
A randomized treatment study will be conducted to determine the efficacy of the two interventions as compared to each other and to the Creative Curriculum control condition. Sixty Head Start classrooms will be randomly assigned to one of the three experimental conditions. Teachers will be trained to high levels of treatment fidelity on the curricula during the first year, and treatment will begin in the fall of the second year. Children will be followed each year through first grade. In addition, 240 children will be randomly selected and observed during small group instruction to examine behavior and interactions with teachers and explore variables that may account for differences in the three intervention groups.
Control condition
Creative Curriculum will serve as the control condition. This curriculum is one of the most widely used in Head Start. While it provides a framework for teachers, it does not provide specific activities or instructional approaches for teaching language or literacy skills.
Key measures
Children will be administered a battery of language, literacy and achievement measures at four time points (i.e.- pre intervention, post intervention, kindergarten follow-up, and first grade follow-up) to determine the immediate and longer term effects of the three interventions. In addition, data on the fidelity of intervention implementation and teacher reported measures of behavior, social skills, and classroom relationships will be collected.
Data analytic strategy
Data will be analyzed using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) techniques with a systematic examination of child, teacher, and classroom quality factors that moderate the effects of the interventions. In addition, growth curves for language and early literacy skills will be derived using the Individual Growth and Development Indicators (IGDI).
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Products and publications
Products: The expected outcomes from this study include:
- Published reports describing the efficacy of the three programs for improving children's language and literacy skills and behavior and how child, teacher, and classroom factors interact with a program of instruction in producing learning outcomes,
- Presentations on mediating variables that account for differences in intervention groups and provide insight into how individual differences emerge, and
- Presentations on the cost analyses related to these intervention options.
Book chapter
Dickinson, D. K., & Darrow, C. (in press). Methodological and practical challenges of broad-gauged language interventions. In T. Shanahan & C. Lonigan (Eds.), Literacy in preschool and kindergarten children: The National Early Literacy Panel and Beyond. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.
Dickinson, D.K, Freiberg, J.B., and Barnes, E. (2011). Why are so Few Interventions Really Effective? A Call for Fine-Grained Research Methodology. In S.B. Neuman, and D.K. Dickinson (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research (pp. 337-357). New York: Guilford Press.
Dickinson, D.K. (2012). Approaches to Studying Language in Preschool Classrooms. In E. Hoff (Ed.), Guide to Research Methods in Child Language (pp. 254-270). Oxford, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. doi:10.1002/9781444344035.ch17
Kaiser, A.P. (in press). Practical Assessments of Communication in the Classroom. In M. McLean, M.L. Hemmeter, and P. Snyder (Eds.), Essential Elements for Assessing Infants and Preschoolers With Special Needs. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Publishing Co.
Kaiser, A.P., Roberts, M.Y., and McLeod, R.H. (2010). Young Children With Language Impairments: Challenges in Transition to Reading. In D.K. Dickinson, and S.B. Neuman (Eds.), Handbook of Early Literacy Research, Vol III (pp. 153-174). New York: Guilford Press.
McFarland, D., Diehl, D., and Rawlings, C.M. (2010). Methodological Transactionalism and the Sociology of Education. In M.T. Hallinan (Ed.), Frontiers of the Sociology of Education (pp. 87-110). New York: Springer Publishing.
Journal article, monograph, or newsletter
Castro, D., Paez, M., Dickinson, D., and Frede, E. (2011). Promoting Language and Literacy in Young Language Minority Children: Research, Practice and Policy. Child Development Perspectives, 5(1): 15-20. doi:10.1111/j.1750-8606.2010.00142.x
Dickinson, D.K., Golinkoff, R.M., and Hirsh-Pasek, K.K. (2010). Speaking Out for Language: Why Language Is Central to Reading Development. Educational Researcher, 39(4): 305-310. doi:10.3102/0013189X10370204
Kleeck, A.V., Schwarz, A.L., Fey, M., Kaiser, A.P., Miller, J., and Weitzman, E. (2010). Should we use Telegraphic or Grammatical Input in the Early Stages of Language Development With Children who Have Language Impairments? A Meta-Analysis of the Research and Expert Opinion. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 19: 3-21. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2009/08-0075)
Questions about this project?
To answer additional questions about this project or provide feedback, please contact the program officer.
