Reading Beyond the Book: Educating Paraprofessionals to Implement Dialogic Reading for Preschool Children With Language Impairments

Abstract

We examined how educating paraprofessionals in preschool classrooms on dialogic reading (DR) affected their storybook reading and effects on children’s single word vocabulary. Through a single-case multiple-probe across participants design including four paraprofessionals and eight preschool children, we identified a functional relation between educating paraprofessionals in DR and implementation of the CROWD prompts; yet, no functional relation was observed for the implementation of the evaluate, expand, and repeat strategies. Data collected on children’s expressive near-transfer vocabulary showed all but one child made minimal gains from baseline to intervention, whereas receptive data remained stable for six participants. Results suggested that paraprofessionals implemented the strategies of DR with variable fidelity following a singular training and in-text supports. Additional supports may be necessary for all aspects of the intervention and generalization to be implemented with fidelity and for improvement to carryover to both receptive and expressive vocabulary skills for children.