ACCELERATING LANGUAGE-DEVELOPMENT THROUGH PICTURE BOOK READING - REPLICATION AND EXTENSION TO A VIDEOTAPE TRAINING FORMAT

G. J. Whitehurst et al. (1988) taught mothers specific interactive tec hniques to use when reading Picture books with their preschool-age chi ldren. This intervention program, called dialogic reading, produced su bstantial effects on preschool children's language development. Howeve r, the costs of one-on-one training limit the widespread use of dialog ic reading techniques. In this study the authors aimed to replicate an d extend the results of the original study of dialogic reading by deve loping and evaluating an inexpensive videotape training package for te aching dialogic reading techniques. Mothers were randomly assigned to receive no training, traditional direct training, or videotape trainin g. Results supported the conclusions of Whitehurst et al.: Dialogic re ading had powerful effects on children's language skills and indicated that videotape training provided a cost-effective, standardized means of implementing the program.