Multi-tiered Narrative Intervention for Preschoolers: A Head Start Implementation Study

Authors

  • Trina D Spencer Northern Arizona University
  • Sarah A Weddle The May Institute
  • Douglas B Petersen University of Wyoming
  • John L Adams Northern Arizona University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.55370/hsdialog.v20i1.543

Keywords:

language intervention, implementation, narratives

Abstract

Teachers and teaching assistants from three Head Start classrooms implemented a multi-tiered narrative intervention in their preschool classrooms. They delivered large group, small group, and individual lessons with students and administered and scored a progress monitoring tool with all children once a month. A quasi-experimental control group design was conducted to determine the effect of the multi-tiered intervention on children’s story retelling skills and story-based language comprehension. The extent to which the Head Start teachers’ could deliver the intervention with fidelity and administer and score the progress monitoring probes accurately were examined. Feasibility data were collected via interviews and questionnaires. Results indicated statistically significant improvements favoring the treatment group at Winter and Spring assessment points for story retelling and language comprehension. All measures of teachers’ fidelity and reliability were above acceptable standards. As teachers and teaching assistants became more comfortable delivering the intervention, teachers’ perceptions of the intervention’s feasibility increased.

Author Biographies

Trina D Spencer, Northern Arizona University

Dr. Spencer is an associate research professor in the department of Educational Psychology and the research director of the Institute for Human Development at Northern Arizona University. She has partnered with Head Start preschools to conduct impactful research for eight years.

Sarah A Weddle, The May Institute

Dr. Weddle is a post doctoral fellow at the May Institute.

Douglas B Petersen, University of Wyoming

Dr. Petersen is an associate professor in the Division of Communication Sciences at University of Wyoming.

John L Adams, Northern Arizona University

Mr. Adams is a doctoral student in the department of Educational Psychology at Northern Arizona University

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2017-12-20

Issue

Vol. 20 No. 1

Section

Research Articles

License

This Agreement (the Agreement) is made by and between __________(“Author(s)”) and "Dialog” (the “Journal”).


Author Agreement

By submitting this research article entitled “_____________” ('article')to (Dialog) published by the J. Murrey Atkins Library at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Author(s) certify that:


I. Warranties:


A.  Author  __________(name)  is legally authorized and possesses full power and authority on behalf of my co-authors [list names] to enter into this Agreement.

B. Author warrants, on behalf of all article authors, that:

a. the article is original, has not been formally published in any other peer-reviewed journal, is not under consideration for publication by any other journal and does not infringe any existing copyright or any other third party rights;

b. The named authors (above) are the sole author(s) of the article. Any co-author not signing this Agreement personally has granted full authority to [named author in I.A.] to enter into this agreement of his/her behalf and to grant the following rights to Dialog set forth below.

c. the article contains nothing that is unlawful, libellous, or which would, if published, constitute a breach of contract.

II.Copyright

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

a. Author(s) shall retain copyright to the article but grant the Journal right of first publication, and the irrevocable right to perpetually disseminate the article as part of the Journal subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License, that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

b. Beginning one year after the date of formal publication of the article, Authors may enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work and subject to the Creative Commons Attribution License (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), subject to a proper acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal: “This article was originally published in the Dialog (Vol., Issue, Year).”

III. Indemnification.

Author shall indemnify, defend, and hold harmless the Journal from any and all claims, liabilities, damages, expenses (including attorneys’ fees and expert costs’, penalties, fees, if any arising from enforcement of this Agreement and/or related to claims of infringement of copyrights or proprietary rights allegedly contained in the Article  , or resulting from a claim of defamation, obscenity, or invasion of privacy based upon or arising out of the publication of the Article or any other breach of warranty as set forth in No. 1.