Efficacy of Let's Know! First Grade

Overview

Oral language skills are vital for reading comprehension. Some children, however, are at increased risk for reading comprehension difficulties due to underlying oral language deficits. School-based interventions that target children's abilities to understand and produce spoken language have shown positive effects for improving language and reading comprehension of children with typical development and those at-risk for language disorders, so it is likely that they will benefit children with low oral language skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of a small-group intervention for improve language skills in first grade students with low oral language skills.

Oral language skills, which consist of both lower-level (vocabulary and grammar) and higher-level skills (inferencing, comprehension monitoring, and text structure knowledge) are crucial for reading comprehension. Children with low oral language skills are at increased risk for negative academic outcomes due to their deficits in understanding and producing language. Multi-component interventions have shown positive effects for improving language comprehension and reading comprehension outcomes of children with typical development and at-risk for language and literacy disorders, and thus may benefit children with low oral language skills. The purpose of this study is to examine the efficacy of Let's Know!, a small group multi-component intervention, for improving language comprehension skills in first-grade students with low oral language skills. A randomized controlled trial will be employed to compare the language comprehension outcomes for a treatment group compared to a business-as-usual control group.