Dialogic Reading's Potential to Improve Children's Emergent Literacy Skills and Behavior

Young children entering school with poor oral vocabulary skills may be "doubly disadvantaged." Their poor oral vocabulary skills will likely impede their attempts to become proficient readers while also possibly increasing the frequency of their problem behaviors. Dialogic Reading is a scientifically-validated shared storybook reading intervention that is known to boost at risk children's oral vocabulary skills. As such, use of Dialogic Reading is one potential way to help children avoid both later reading failure and the negative outcomes associated with poor behavior. In this article, we detail both (a) a research-based rationale for using Dialogic Reading and (b) Dialogic Reading's set of procedures and prompts.