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The Effects of a Responsive-Interactive Language Intervention with Head Start Children

Description:
This two-phase study addresses the need for early interventions that identify and provide services to children whose language delays put them at risk for negative developmental outcomes. In particular, the study examines ways to provide expanded opportunities and support to caregivers in order to improve the quality and quantity of caregiver-child verbal interactions. The following research questions will be examined: (1) Is there a functional relationship between responsive-interactive language strategies exhibited by caregivers and the language skills of their preschool children? and (2) Do child language skills gained through the home-based language intervention generalize to peer interactions? In Year One, three caregiver-child dyads recruited from Head Start classrooms will participate in a home-based, responsive-interactive language intervention. Participating children must be between 48 and 55 months old and perform one standard deviation or more below the average in language skills on standardized measures of language development, but must not receive speech and language services. In addition, families must meet economic criteria for the Head Start program, and dyads must speak English or Spanish as their primary language. Home visitors will provide modeling, coaching, feedback, and language activities in order to support caregivers' verbal skills in contingent feedback, following the child's lead, and balanced turn-taking. A behavioral observation tool created by the principal investigator will be used to evaluate each child's verbal interactions and responses during caregiver-child and child-peer interactions, as well as each caregiver's verbal skills. The Picture Description Fluency Measure (PDF), an Individual Growth and Development Indicator of Language created by the University of Oregon, will be used to identify growth in children's vocabulary. The Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts computer-based coding system (SALT) will be used to code caregivers' use of the above-mentioned skills and children's language behaviors during video-taped language samples of caregiver-child verbal interaction. The Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT) will be used to identify progress in children's global language skill development. Visual analysis of trend and level will be used to identify a controlling effect for the intervention on caregiver and child verbal behavior. Identification and analysis of individual differences in response to the intervention among families will allow for adjustments in Year Two interventions that will ensure the most effective and culturally sensitive home visiting program for the promotion of language skills. The responsive-interactive language intervention will be widely implemented in Year Two. Inclusion criteria will remain unchanged. Fifty Head Start families will be randomly assigned to intervention and control conditions. The PPVT-R will measure children's expressive and receptive language prior to and following the intervention for children in both groups. The Picture Description Fluency Measure (PDF), Picture Naming Fluency Measure (PNF), and Caregiver Verbal Interaction Code (CVIC) will be used at three points throughout the intervention to assess growth in children's vocabulary and the caregiver's use of targeted verbal strategies. The statistical procedure ANCOVA will be used to analyze all pre-and post-test Year Two data.
Resource Type:
Administration for Children and Families/OPRE Projects
Principal Investigator(s):
Research Scholar(s):
Grantee(s)/Contrator(s):

Related resources include summaries, versions, measures (instruments), or other resources in which the current document plays a part. Research products funded by the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation are related to their project records.

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