Shared Reading and Guided Play for Vocabulary Instruction With Young Children

Delays in oral language development in early childhood can be an indicator for later reading disabilities and affect students’ overall school success through high school. Fortunately, there are research-based approaches to help young students at risk for reading disabilities make long-term improvements in their vocabulary development skills. This article is intended to translate the large body of research on shared reading into into a five-step planning process for developing explicit vocabulary intervention in one-week sequences. Descriptions are provided to assist teachers in designing shared reading instruction that includes guided play activities and an evaluation tool for determining students’ developing knowledge of the taught words.