Essentially the practice involves reading interactively with children, even very young children, to help them develop strong comprehension and language skills. Practicing this type of active reading with children from a very young age sets the foundation for strong readers later.
Many parents naturally practice dialogic reading with their babies, toddlers, and preschoolers. If a parent and child are observed reading a book together and the parent asks the child "Where is the Duck?" This is dialogic reading. It is the discourse that takes place about the story and images.
While there are many elements in the complicated process of learning to read, dialogic reading is the activity that will help emergent readers develop strong comprehension skills. It's also a positive effect on oral language development.
Dialogic Reading was pioneered by Dr. Russ Whitehurst. Language is the Key uses a dialogic reading approach. It is also infused with research findings in the areas early language, literacy, and play development; family involvement; language facilitation; bilingual language development; cultural relevance, and adult learning.
