Home stimulation program for language development in kindergarten children

Wrigley, David Allan (1978) Home stimulation program for language development in kindergarten children. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

The first purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Learning to Tell section of the Learning Language at Home kit (Karnes, 1977) used by mothers of lower socioeconomic status with their kindergarten-age children. The second purpose was to evaluate two different methods of implementing an intervention program using this section of the kit over a ten-week period. -- The Blishen Occupational Class Scale (1976) was used to select a sample of 48 mothers who were randomly assigned to three groups: sixteen were given the section of the kit, instructed in its use, and assigned a weekly home intervener (E2); sixteen were given only the section of the kit and instructed in its use (E1); and sixteen parents were given no treatment and served as a control group (C1). -- The Reynell Developmental Language Scales (1969) and the Verbal Expression subtest of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (1968) were used to assess the children's expressive language and verbal comprehension. -- The pretest and posttest data were treated with a covariate statistical analysis to determine how and to what extent the independent variables (the two treatments by the interveners) explained the results of the dependent variables (the expressive language post tests). The analysis of covariance tested all hypotheses for significance. Verbal comprehension was measured using an F test statistic on the posttest data. -- The following conclusions were reached: (1) The use of the kit did not result in significantly higher expressive language or verbal comprehension scores for the E1 group than for the C1 group within the given conditions of the program. (2) The method of treatment given to group E2 did not result in expressive language or verbal comprehension scores that were significantly higher than those of the E1 and C1 groups. (3) Significantly greater improvements were found in the Verbal Expression subtest scores of the I.T.P.A. in favor of the E1 group when compared to the E2 group which was contrary to one of the directionally stated hypotheses.

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