Storybooks: An Efficacy Study With At-Risk Kindergartners

Author note: This paper was prepared for the American Federation of Teachers by Louisa C. Moats, project director, Washington D.C. site of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Early Interventions Project, and clinical associate professor of pediatrics, University of Texas, Houston, Health Sciences Center. Her work is supported in part by grant HD30995, “Early Interventions for Children with Reading Problems,”

The section of the population of interest to be considered for further health research and analysis is children. This argument and premise stem from the fact that children are the backbone of the human society and all attention, and positive energy should be

Learning to read is beginning to develop earlier in elementary grades. Students are expected to be emergent readers by the time he or she leaves kindergarten and enters first grade. If a child is not, he or she is labeled as being behind. According to Hughes (2007) emergent readers are using early reading strategies in consistently, read easy patterned text, retell text with simple storyline, and respond to text at a literal level. Hughes (2007) also says literacy develops in young children through play, daily conversation and interactions with text of all kinds. Many children come with emergent literacy skills; can recognize signs and labels, scribble letters, retell stories by pointing at pictures and talking about them, and some have varying degrees of phonemic and phonological awareness. This essay will define and explain implication for each theory in learning to read.

Reading is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information which is essential in being a productive member of society. If and when a student missed an opportunity to learn the skills necessary for reading, it’s has a profound impact on their lives. As educators we realize that teaching all children to read requires that every child receive excellent reading instruction. We are also aware that children, who are struggling with reading must receive

The purpose of the article is clearly stated from the background statement, however, the introduction part doesn’t clearly specify if the problem or the research is particularly conducted on adults or pediatrics. This is

Patty: Pertinent to the above answer, a recent “graduate” of BWB — about 6 years old — came up to our table at a community event, picked up our display copy of “Good Night, Gorilla,” and told us that “mama had been her first word as a baby and that “gorilla” had been her second word because she listened to and loved this book so much. I think this single story says so much about the impact that reading books aloud to children has on vocabulary. Children’s books contain 30% more vocabulary value than TV or ordinary adult-child conversation. 76% of all 5 year-old children entering Tri-County public schools test as “not proficient” in vocabulary.

The literature review was well presented. The researchers sourced the studies from five countries. The studies employed differed in the number of cases and the age gap considered in each study. The authors criticized some of the studies while others were barely discussed. Besides, the review covered English studies only limiting the population.

As cited by ASCD (2013), Maranzo and Pickering (2005) delineate the role of vocabulary in literacy development by stating “ knowledge anyone has about a topic is based on the vocabulary of that information”. Students’ ability to utilize and expand their vocabulary base has tremendous implication on their reading aptness. During their elementary years, students from disadvantaged backgrounds augment their vocabulary by 3,000 words per year, albeit middle class students augment their vocabulary by 5,000 words each year (ASCD, 2013). These discrepancies manifest as persistent achievement gaps in reading ability (2013). Furthermore, what is evident is that students able to acquire a large vocabulary early on are in turn adept to learn new words

Some educators believe that reading aloud to children is a waste of time in a literacy program. Read-alouds are a step on the road of literacy that cannot be neglected, no matter how old or young; no matter what language he or she speaks; no matter how gifted or disadvantaged a child might be (Fox, 2013, p. 4). According to Fox (2013), “When a great story is read aloud, listeners discover that vocabulary is easier to understand. The flow and grammar of language becomes more familiar” (p. 4). This paper will discuss the effects of language development when reading aloud to infants and toddlers and how to create an effective read-aloud.

Reading is a skill often taken for granted but it is essential in order to progress in life. For a child being able to read well helps them learn new things, give ideas and enables use of imagination. National literacy trust (2015) suggests that children’s early language skills can have a major impact on a child’s development of literacy skills. Five-year olds with poor language and literacy have a higher risk of underachieving at age seven and beyond. Reading skills encourage more opportunities in life and it can affect a child’s wellbeing if they do not achieve this effectively (Finnegan,2015).

The literature review for this study covers robust vocabulary instruction and the role of storybooks in vocabulary development. Beck, Perfetti, and McKeown (1982) acknowledged robust vocabulary instruction as an effective way for children to learn meanings of words and improve their understanding of what they are reading (as cited in Lovelace, 2009, p. 169). Using robust vocabulary instruction allows children to understand how words are similar and different from other words or ideas. Beck et al. (1982) conducted a study using fourth-grade students from low socioeconomic status to determine the outcome of using robust vocabulary instruction compared with regular reading and language arts activities (as cited in Lovelace, 2009, p 169). There have been a few studies after that compare the effects of robust vocabulary instruction on different parts of vocabulary acquisition and understanding. All of the previous studies specifically on robust vocabulary instruction found that it is beneficial gaining knowledge of vocabulary words in students of low SES.

Constructive early language and literacy development can be an ally to opening a child’s (ren) imagination; this will enhance and empower their potential to become successful readers. As the children grow (birth to 3 yrs. old) their brain goes through an extradinary developmental process and they begin to think, learn, communicate and rationalize things. When this early developmental stage is not being nourished the child will feel the affects of it in the long run. Children that come from low-income families that are enrolled in schools are affected the most. Educators and parents can assist these children by giving them the support (early-on) that they need to sustain a healthy learning environment. As educators it is our duty to create an environment that will help in this process.

Methods: The data set for this research consisted of 18 children, which are divided into two groups. These two group pertain to 9 girls and 9 boys between the ages of 2-18 around the world.

The study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics, and researchers from the medical branch of

When students enter into the kindergarten classroom, they are greeted with a plethora of new knowledge that they may have previously not had exposure, such as phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary. Within these, vocabulary is often a major struggle for many children in kindergarten. Young children are often exposed to vocabulary through conversations, but not in a manner of teaching it explicitly. Through this literature review it was my goal as a researcher to find primary studies that focused on high quality instruction in the field of emergent vocabulary, especially in the kindergarten classroom. This topic came into fruition through wanting to understand literacy practices in kindergarten classrooms, since the implementation of Common Core State Standards.