Kelley Elizabeth Spencer, Barker R Michael, Peters-Sanders Lindsey, Madsen Keri, Seven Yagmur, Soto Xigrid, Olsen Wendy, Hull Katharine, Goldstein Howard
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia.
College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, University of South Florida, Tampa.
J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2020 Dec 14;63(12):4000-4017. doi: 10.1044/2020_JSLHR-20-00316. Epub 2020 Nov 10.
Purpose Many children begin school with limited vocabularies, placing them at a high risk of academic difficulties. The goal of this study was to examine the effects of a vocabulary intervention program, , designed to improve vocabulary knowledge of at-risk preschool children. Method Twenty-four early-childhood classrooms were enrolled in a cluster-randomized design to evaluate the effects of a revised curriculum. In each classroom, three to four preschoolers were identified as having poor language abilities, for a total of 84 participants. In treatment classrooms, explicit vocabulary instruction was embedded in prerecorded storybooks and opportunities for review and practice of target vocabulary were integrated into classroom and home practice activities. In comparison classrooms, prerecorded storybooks included target vocabulary, but without explicit instruction, and classroom and home strategies focused on general language enrichment strategies without specifying vocabulary targets to teach. Intervention activities took place over 13 weeks, and 36 challenging, academically relevant vocabulary words were targeted. Results Children in the treatment classrooms learned significantly more words than children in the comparison classrooms, who learned few target words based on exposure. Large effect sizes (mean = 1.83) were evident as the treatment group averaged 42% vocabulary knowledge versus 11% in the comparison group, despite a gradual decline in vocabulary learning by the treatment group over the school year. Conclusions Findings indicate that a carefully designed vocabulary intervention can produce substantial gains in children's vocabulary knowledge. The program is feasible for delivery in early childhood classrooms and effective in teaching challenging vocabulary to high-risk preschoolers. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13158185.
目的 许多孩子入学时词汇量有限，这使他们面临学业困难的高风险。本研究的目的是检验一项词汇干预计划的效果，该计划旨在提高有风险的学龄前儿童的词汇知识。方法 采用整群随机设计，纳入24个幼儿教室以评估修订后的课程效果。在每个教室中，三到四名学龄前儿童被确定为语言能力较差，共有84名参与者。在干预教室中，明确的词汇教学嵌入到预先录制的故事书中，目标词汇的复习和练习机会融入到课堂和家庭练习活动中。在对照教室中，预先录制的故事书包含目标词汇，但没有明确的教学，课堂和家庭策略侧重于一般语言丰富策略，没有指定要教授的词汇目标。干预活动持续13周，目标是36个具有挑战性的、与学业相关的词汇。结果 干预教室中的儿童比对照教室中的儿童学到的单词明显更多，对照教室中的儿童通过接触学到的目标单词很少。尽管干预组在学年中词汇学习逐渐下降，但效果量很大（平均 = 1.83），因为干预组平均词汇知识为42%，而对照组为11%。结论 研究结果表明，精心设计的词汇干预可以使儿童的词汇知识有显著提高。该计划在幼儿教室中实施是可行的，并且在向有风险的学龄前儿童教授具有挑战性的词汇方面是有效的。补充材料 https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13158185 。
