Multiple Exemplar Instruction and Shared Story Reading with Preschool Children

Abstract

The emergence of bidirectional naming requires mastery of verbal operants such as tact, discriminative listening, and intraverbal evocation of classes. Strategies based on multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) have proven effective in promoting these repertoires in naturalistic contexts. This exploratory study investigated the effectiveness of MEI during shared group story reading in teaching selection responses, impure tacts, listener categorization, and simultaneous categorization, aiming to promote Common Bidirectional Naming (C-BiN) in preschool children aged 3 to 4 years. It also assessed the incidental learning of intraverbal categorization for the same stimuli. Thirteen children (5 girls) aged 3 to 4 years enrolled in a Municipal Early Childhood Education School participated in the study. The children were randomly assigned to either the control or the experimental group, with almost all participants showing scores within the normal range on a standardized vocabulary test. The study involved small groups. The experimental group underwent the Shared Reading intervention with MEI, while the control group participated in Shared Reading without MEI. Both groups followed an identical structure for the Initial Assessment, Pre-test, Probes, and Post-test phases. A pretest was conducted before the intervention, followed by an intermediate probe after the first intervention session and a post-test after the second session. During shared reading in the experimental group, six target words from two distinct categories were introduced, with three target words per category, alongside three control words from an untrained category. Each target word appeared three times in the reading session. After each occurrence, the researcher provided a brief definition of the word (e.g., “Atabaque: it’s a large drum that produces a loud sound”). Following this, one to three participants were asked, one at a time, to answer a specific question about the word. Each child had at least four opportunities to respond during the MEI-based reading. For control words, definitions were provided without requesting responses. In the control group (shared reading only, n=6), the same stimuli and number of sessions were used, but instead of MEI, the reading session involved dialogic interactions as suggested in the literature. After reading each paragraph, participants were asked specific questions unrelated to the target words. Both groups showed improvements in some tasks from pre-test to post-test, with gains in Intraverbal Categorization, Selection, and Listener Categorization tasks, particularly in the experimental group. However, neither group demonstrated learning for impure tacts or simultaneous categorization tasks for target or control words. Participants in the experimental group displayed significant emergent learning, as shown by above-chance accuracy levels for stimuli not directly taught. These findings suggest that MEI can be effectively incorporated into established preschool education strategies, enriching shared reading activities by blending direct and incidental teaching methods. Further research is required to explore different formats and determine the critical variables for vocabulary instruction in this context.