Dialogic Reading 

Dialogic book reading, developed by Grover J. Whitehurst, is an evidence-based approach designed to improve young children’s expressive language and literacy skills. Its aim is to support the child in becoming the storyteller through cues and prompts. Over time there is a decreasing focus on the adult reading the story and an increase in the child's role in the storytelling. This strategy helps the child become more active in the reading process, with opportunities for verbal expression as the adult becomes the questioner and the listener. 

Dialogic Reading can be used in intervention sessions with children individually or in small groups.

How to implement dialogic book reading:

First, the clinician reads the book to the child as normal, without interruptions, questions, or added vocabulary. In subsequent readings of the book, the clinician begins incorporating specific prompts and simple questions to encourage and support the child in telling the story. Each following time the book is read, there is an increased emphasis on the child telling more of the story through the use of cues and prompts that encourage the student to move past labeling the pictures to talking more about what is happening in the story and how it relates to the student’s real-life experiences.

Hierarchical Cueing System 1

When reading to the child, the clinician uses strategies referred to as the PEER sequence.  

‘PEER’ is an acronym and means the following:

• Prompt the child to say something about the book.

• Evaluate the child’s response.

• Expand on the child’s response by rephrasing or adding information.

• Repeat the prompt to check if the child has learned from the expansion.

Hierarchical Cueing System 2

Expanding off of the PEER sequence, there are five types of question prompts clinicians can use that make up the acronym ‘CROWD’:

• Completion prompts: The clinician pauses at the end of a sentence to allow the child to complete the phrase. This works best with books that rhyme or have repeated phases.

• Recall prompts: The clinician asks questions about what happened in the book after it has been read to give the student a chance to recall the information.

• Open-ended prompts: These prompts focus on asking open-ended questions about the pictures in books and are best for books that have rich, detailed illustrations. This encourages the student to describe what is happening in the picture.

• Wh prompts: The clinician asks what, where, when, why, and how questions about the pictures in the book.

• Distancing prompts: The clinician relates the book’s ideas and pictures to children’s real-life experiences.

Data and progress monitoring can be collected using reading records and reading log forms. 

Therapists can also coach parents and caregivers to use the PEER and CROWD strategies (alongside other language facilitation strategies) when reading to their children at home. 

References 

Flynn, K. (2011). ‘Developing Children’s Oral Language Skills Through Dialogic Reading: Guidelines for Implementation’. Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 44 (2), pp.8-16.

Towson, J.A., Fettig, A., Fleury, V.A., and Abarca, D.L. (2017). ‘Dialogic Reading in Early Childhood Settings: A Summary of the Evidence Base’. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, Vol. 37 (3), pp.132-146. Doi: 10.1177/0271121417724875

Whitehurst (2002) as cited in the ‘Dialogic Reading: An Effective Way to Read Aloud with Young Children’ article on Readingrockets.org