| Interventions that promote the development of early literacy skills (e.g., phonemic awareness, concepts about print) in preschool children include reading activities and curricula that can be implemented by preschool teachers. Although most studies of literacy instruction implemented in preschool have documented change in child behavior, fewer studies have documented change in teacher behavior as a result of a consultation intervention focusing on literacy instruction. By combining videotapes of teachers in their classrooms with feedback and generalization training as components of a videotape consultation package, three Head Start teachers showed increases in their literacy instruction behaviors during group circle activities immediately after they received training for that setting. However, maintenance of the behavior over a long period of time was not clear. Consistent with research on generalizing behaviors to other settings, the teachers did not spontaneously use the literacy instruction behaviors during another activity. Only one teacher displayed a higher frequency of literacy instruction behaviors in the generalization setting after receiving generalization training. The results suggest that teachers find the consultation and intervention procedures acceptable and that these procedures can be used in practice, but that the training procedures need to be stronger to increase stability of change in behavior and generalization. |
