The untapped potential of preschool volunteers (Schmitt & Gillispie, 2020)

Abstract

Purpose: This pretest–posttest study examined the effectsof a professional development training on five volunteerinstructors’ (VIs) utilization of language and literacy facilitation strategies within interactive shared book readings with low income preschool children. The training specifically targeted the VIs’ use of wh-questions, expansions, and references to story grammar elements (SGEs) with use of a corresponding visual aid.Method: VIs participated in a 3-hr training composed oflecture, video models, role playing, four opportunities toexplicitly practice the target strategies, and four opportunities to receive immediate feedback from the investigators. The VIs led storybook readings that were video-recorded for comparison prior to and after the training sessions (two pretraining, two posttraining). The investigators analyzed the VIs’ language and literacy strategy usage in the readings. The investigators compared the raw number of wh-questions asked, expansions of child responses or comments, the number of references (out of 20) to SGEs, and use of the visual aid pre- and posttraining.Results: After the training, four of the five VIs increased thenumber of wh-questions asked during readings, and one VImaintained a large number of questions asked, compared topretraining readings. All VIs provided an increased numberof references to SGEs (character, setting, problem, fixingproblem, solution) in a variety of capacities (name, definition,book-specific element, visual aid use) to reinforce narrativeconcepts. VIs had inconsistent increases in expansions ofchild responses or comments posttraining.Conclusion: Results revealed the VIs generally increasedtheir facilitation of language and literacy strategies afterparticipating in a professional development training,suggesting utilization of volunteers as instructors maybe a valuable area to explore, especially in low-incomeenvironments where children are at risk for language andliteracy delays.Supplemental Material S1. Demographic questionnaire.Supplemental Material S2. Pretraining/posttraining survey.Supplemental Material S3. Powerpoint training.Supplemental Material S4. Posttraining reflection.Schmitt, J., & Gillispie, M. (2020). The untapped potential of preschool classroom volunteers in language– literacy instruction: A feasibility study. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups. https://doi.org/10.1044/2020_PERSP-20-10002