Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills

Study Summary

Language skills are important for long-term reading comprehension success. Yet there are limited instructional approaches available for prekindergarten (pre-K) teachers to use in their inclusive classrooms to boost literacy-related language skills in children with and without language delays or disorders. In the first part of this study, the investigators will develop a teacher training program focused on building pre-K children's language-based literacy skills. Teachers will be trained and will use the strategies that they learn during literacy-related activities in their inclusive pre-K classrooms. Their students' language-related literacy skills will be measured before and after their training. Based on teacher feedback and child assessment information, the training program will be revised. In the final part of the study, a preliminary randomized control trial (RCT) will be done using the revised training approach. The results of the RCT will help the investigators know if the teacher training program helps to improve the effectiveness of teachers' instruction and their students' development of language-related literacy skills. The primary goal of this research study is to determine whether study-trained pre-K teachers in inclusive early childhood education classrooms use more effective teaching strategies than teachers who do not receive the training. A secondary goal of this research study is to determine if this teacher training program strengthens language-related literacy skills for students with and without language disorders or delays. The research team hypothesizes that teachers who participate in the training program will use effective teaching strategies more often than teachers who do not receive the training. Additionally, the investigators predict that teachers who receive the training will feel more confident teaching early language-based literacy skills to their students (with and without language delays/disorders) than teachers who do not receiv

Primary Outcome

This measure serves as an indicator of narrative comprehension at pre- and post-treatment time points. Students will be administered two parallel versions of this assessment at both testing points. The combined raw score will be used for comparison. This measure was used in iterative development phases and will be used in the RCT

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Early Achievements - Shaping Early Language and Literacy Skills

Study Locations (1)