An analysis of verbal interactions during dialogic reading with Spanish-speaking children enrolled in a Head Start home visiting program

The purpose of this study was to analyze verbal interactions during dialogic storybook reading while using the child's native language or English. Four Spanish-speaking children were read to during Head Start home visits by an English-speaking teacher or a Spanish-speaking paraprofessional. Each session was videotaped and then analyzed using the Adult-Child Interactive Reading Inventory (ACIRI) (DeBruin-Parecki, 2007) and ¡Dime mas!, a researcher-developed event-based cross classifying coding scheme. Effect sizes calculated for the three subscale scores on the ACIRI (DeBruin-Parecki, 2007) indicated differences in using literacy strategies both at the adult and child levels between the English and Spanish condition favoring English. Results of ¡Dime mas! indicated slight increases in shared meaning when Spanish was used, but the quality of child responses remained essentially the same. Implications for native language support in early childhood programs are discussed.