Table 1: Education Level and Home Language of Parents and Caregivers
Total Group
(N = 38)
Dialogic Reading
Group (N = 20)
Traditional Family Time
Group (N = 18)
Less than high school
21%
25%
17%
Some high school
16%
15%
17%
High school
34%
35%
33%
Some college
24%
20%
28%
College graduate
5%
5%
5%
English
24%
20%
28%
English and Spanish
26%
25%
28%
Spanish
42%
50%
33%
Other
8%
5%
11%
Education
Language at Home
There were 42 preschool children (26 boys and
17 girls) between the ages of three and five in the
study. On average, the children of the parents and
caregivers in the dialogic reading group (13 boys and
9 girls) were four years three months (SD = 6.09
months) and the children of parents and caregivers in
the control group (13 boys and 8 girls) were four
years two months (SD = 6.66 months). All of the
children were identified as ―at-risk‖ based on
screening results of their expressive and receptive
language, fine and gross motor skills, and social /
emotional and intellectual processing. Many of the
children had deficits in expressive and / or receptive
language.
Parents and caregivers involved in the
PARTNERS Program were provided easy to follow
dialogic reading techniques during the Monday
trainings which were based on the dialogic reading
strategies CAR and 123. The CAR strategy, designed
by Washington Research Institute, teaches parents and
caregivers to Comment and wait (provide a language
model), Ask questions and wait (encourage
interaction and reflection), a