Sample A: Cover Page of Thesis, Project, or Dissertation Proposal

Literacy Prevention and Intervention Programs
Previous research has indicated that language skills may be pliable particularly
within the preschool period. Further, relations between literacy skills grow more complex
during this time frame. Thus, the late preschool period offers an optimal time frame for
intervention methods targeting literacy development (Dickinson, McCabe, & Essex,
2006). Previous research has demonstrated qualitative differences in home literacy
environments of children from families of all socio-economic backgrounds (Britto, 2001;
Hoff, 2003). In particular, children from families of low socio-economic status have been
shown to live in environments offering less support for language and literacy
development (Britto, 2001). Given this knowledge, high-quality preschool programming
targeting literacy skill development and conceptual knowledge could greatly benefit
children in families facing socio-economic hardship (Neuman, 2006).
A number of literacy-based intervention programs have altered a commonplace
literacy practice in children‘s homes and classrooms: storybook reading. Many of these
programs have included dialogic reading techniques developed by Arnold and Whitehurst
(1994) and described by Whitehurst and Lonigan (1998). Dialogic reading is based on
three general principles: adults use evocative techniques to encourage children to actively
participate in storytelling; adults expand children‘s responses to questions, model
appropriate responses to questions, correct children‘s responses to questions as needed,
and praise children for correct responses to questions; and adults‘ standards for children
progressively change in order to constantly prompt the child to process the story more
than he or she typically would (Arnold & Whitehurst, 1994). Translated into practice,
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