The Missouri Reader Vol. 37, Issue 1 | Page 38

solicited questions (p < .01) significantly more than
children in the control group. Overall, parents and
caregivers in the dialogic reading group exhibited
significantly stronger skills in two categories of
reading: promoting interactive reading (p < .01) and
using literacy strategies (p < .01).

Planning and Implementing Family
Nights
The pilot for the PARTNERS Program was
conducted during the day at an elementary school.
However, teachers, classroom assistants, or trained
parents could easily provide parent training in dialogic
reading over two or three family nights. To do this,
facilitators would need to provide dialogic reading
training for parents and caregivers, opportunities for
modeling, and time for parents and caregivers to
practice sharing a story with their children.
Family events are usually held in the evening or
on weekends to increase the likelihood of parents‘ and
caregivers‘ availability. That is why we discuss hosting
family nights. However, issues related to food,
childcare, and transportation will also need to be
considered. If the children in your program are
dropped off by a parent or caregiver, it might be
practical to offer the training during the day when
family members are already there dropping their
children off.

Family Night Training Sessions
The first family night session should be designed
to help parents understand the importance of sharing
books with their children, introduce the CAR
strategy, provide caregivers a chance to watch the
strategy being modeled, and allow caregivers an
opportunity to apply the strategy with their children.
This session should focus on parents‘ understanding
that sharing books with their children is simple, fun,
and very rewarding. It is important to help parents
understand that sharing books for as little as 10
minutes a day can result in improving young
children‘s school readiness, vocabulary, and reading

readiness. When introducing the CAR strategy,
explain to parents that:
The C stands for Comment and wait. Before
asking their children about a picture, parents
should talk about it.
The A stands for Ask questions and wait. Parents
should ask their children simple questions about
the picture. Make sure to explain to parents the
importance of giving their children time to
answer. Encourage parents to slowly count to the
number 5 in their heads to give their children
enough time to answer. Also, make sure that you
discuss the importance of praising children for
their attempts.
The R in CAR stands for Respond by adding a little
more. Help parents understand that their
children will often only provide 1-word answers.
This is a great place to start. Explain that parents
can help their children learn new words by
adding more description or details to their
children‘s responses. Encourage parents to ask
their children to repeat the expanded responses.
This will help their children learn new words and
encourage language.
It is very important to provide parents with an
opportunity to watch the CAR strategy being
modeled. There are English and Spanish training
videos available from Washington Learning Systems
that that show parents using the CAR strategy with
their children. However, you can choose a big book
and easily model both the CAR and 1, 2, 3 strategies
yourself encouraging parents to interact with you as
you use the strategy. Make sure that you spend ample
time modeling the strategy so that parents understand
what they need to do before asking them to practice
with their children.
After everyone feels comfortable with the CAR
strategy, provide parents with time to practice the
strategy with their children. It is preferable that the
book that the parents use with their children is the
same as the big book used for modeling. Also, if funds
are available, allow parents to keep the book that they
practiced with their children. This encourages
additional literature in the home, increases parents‘
©The Missouri Reader, 37 (1) p.38