Comprehending Science Writing: The Promise of Dialogic Reading for Supporting Upper Elementary Deaf Students

Abstract

Dialogic reading is an instructional strategy that has shown promise for supporting the reading development of children both with and without disabilities. Specifically, there may be positive effects of vocabulary knowledge, morphological knowledge, participation during reading, and emergent literacy skills. However, the knowledge base on the efficacy of dialogic reading with informational text is extremely limited. In addition, there are much available data on the use of dialogic reading with deaf students. The current study describes a multiple baseline single-case design study of a dialogic reading approach used with a deaf student enrolled in upper elementary school. Findings show promise for the dialogic reading approach for use with this genre and this population, though further research is necessary.