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The inclusion of professional learning community (PLC) groups is now a common initiative in many districts across the country. While this step supports the professional development of teachers, an effective PLC program must go beyond just bringing colleagues together during a common time. The author recommends organizational structures for schools to implement in order to maximize collaborative time.

It is well established that oral language skills in preschool, including vocabulary and comprehension, predict later reading proficiency and that substantial differences in oral language skills exist when children enter school. Although explicit instruction embedded in storybooks is a promising intervention approach, high-fidelity implementation in preschool classrooms remains a challenge. An automated, explicit vocabulary and comprehension intervention embedded in books was investigated in this early efficacy study. Nine children in public prekindergarten classrooms serving low-income families participated in small group "listening centers" in which they listened to recorded stories and embedded vocabulary and comprehension lessons under headphones. A repeated acquisition single-case experimental design across instructional targets was used. Results indicate modest improvements in vocabulary and comprehension with multiple replications demonstrated within as well as across children. Automated embedded vocabulary and comprehension intervention appears to be feasible for implementation and produces promising results. (Contains 4 tables and 2 figures.)

Researchers consistently report that children from low socioeconomic status (SES) families have, on average, smaller vocabularies as assessed by measures of existing vocabulary knowledge than children from higher SES families. Yet, few studies have examined the word-learning process of children from low SES families. The present study was an examination of fast mapping by preschoolers from low SES families. The study also examined the relation between measures of existing vocabulary and performance on the fast mapping task. Forty-six preschoolers (mean age: 4;6, range: 3;11-5;3) from low SES families completed a part-term fast mapping task and two measures of existing vocabulary knowledge. On the fast mapping task, children demonstrated the use of three sources of information (familiar whole objects, possessive syntax and whole-part juxtaposition). Measures of existing vocabulary did not correlate with performance on the fast mapping task. Findings suggest that children from low SES families use multiple sources of information in linguistic input to learn words. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 1 note.)

Vocabulary instruction is a critical component of early language and literacy programs. Vocabulary skills in the early elementary school years are strong predictors of later reading achievement and there is a correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Children who have limited vocabulary in kindergarten are at high risk of later reading difficulty. For children with disabilities, including children with primary and secondary language impairments, vocabulary instruction is important to provide strong vocabulary knowledge and prevent future reading difficulties. Explicit teaching of vocabulary embedded in shared storybook reading is a promising evidence-based practice for young children, including those from low-income families, and is appropriate for instruction in inclusive settings. The purpose of this article is to provide evidence-based recommendations to guide practitioners in explicit teaching of vocabulary embedded in storybooks. In the next section, the authors review the evidence base for principles of vocabulary instruction for young children, including children with disabilities. (Contains 1 figure and 2 tables.)

Purpose: Educators rely on sufficient knowledge and skill to provide effective phonemic awareness instruction, an important component of early literacy instruction, particularly for children who experience difficulty learning to read. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the phonemic awareness skill of several groups of educators, including speech-language pathologists (SLPs; n = 160), kindergarten teachers (n = 109), first-grade teachers (n = 112), reading teachers (n = 100), and special education teachers (n = 60). Method: Participants completed a paper-pencil measure of phonemic awareness skill that included 3 tasks. The measure was designed to assess sophisticated explicit phonemic awareness skill within a print context, representing an advanced skill level that has been deemed critical to teaching. Results: SLPs demonstrated superior performance on the measure of phonemic awareness skill when compared to other educators (d = 1.54). The performance of reading and special education teachers was comparable to that of kindergarten and first-grade teachers. Orthographic knowledge had an adverse impact on the performance of all groups. However, SLPs were far more proficient than other educators at segmenting words that had a complex relationship between speech and print (e.g., "box," "use"). Clinical Implications: SLPs have relative expertise in phonemic awareness, yet their performance may not be proficient. Three recommendations are discussed: (a) Increase the phonemic awareness skill of all educators, (b) revise instructional materials to enhance educators' efforts to provide accurate and effective phonemic awareness instruction, and (c) include SLPs as members of the team responsible for phonemic awareness instruction and intervention.

Purpose: Phonemic awareness has been identified as a critical area of early literacy instruction. Evidence suggests that educators may not have sufficient phonemic awareness skill to provide effective phonemic awareness instruction. Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) demonstrate strong phonemic awareness skill relative to other educators (Spencer, Schuele, Guillot, & Lee, 2008). This study sought to identify components of speech-language pathology training that contribute to phonemic awareness skill and to examine the phonemic awareness skill of students in speech-language pathology training relative to practicing SLPs and other educators. Method: Students in speech-language pathology (n = 196) completed a paper-and-pencil measure of phonemic awareness. A regression analysis examined the contributions of coursework to performance on the phonemic awareness measure. Performance of students with and without phonetics coursework was compared to that of SLPs (n = 158) and other educators (kindergarten and first-grade teachers, special education teachers, and reading teachers; n = 377). Patterns of performance on a phoneme segmentation task were examined. Results: Phonetics coursework was a positive predictor of performance on the phonemic awareness measure. Students with phonetics coursework outperformed students without phonetics coursework and other educators but were less proficient than SLPs. Students without phonetics coursework performed somewhat similarly to the other educators. Implications: Phonetics coursework contributes to explicit phonemic awareness skill in students who are enrolled in speech-language pathology coursework. But, clinical practice appears to lead to more proficient performance, beyond what is acquired in graduate training. Training that develops explicit phonemic awareness skill is recommended for preservice and inservice SLPs and educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]