Early Childhood Studies Report: Teacher Development and Literacy

This report analyzes a randomized control study investigating the impact of teacher professional development on the vocabulary and pre-literacy skills of at-risk preschoolers. The study involved Head Start teachers, assigning them to either an intervention group with intensive, ongoing professional development or a comparison group with standard professional development. The intervention focused on enhancing teachers' conceptual knowledge and instructional strategies to support children's development in vocabulary, alphabet knowledge, and phonological sensitivity. The findings indicated that teachers in the intervention group created higher-quality classroom environments, as measured by various assessment tools, and demonstrated positive impacts on children's language and literacy development. The report highlights the importance of professional development in early childhood education and discusses the significance of vocabulary, oral language, alphabet knowledge, phonological sensitivity, writing skills, and print exposure in improving literacy skills. The author also provides their personal insights, acknowledging the study's success while noting limitations such as missing data and the need for clear, explicit data for teachers to facilitate information processing and integration into classroom practices.

Running head: EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
Early childhood studies
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
The author of the article illustrates the concept of the improving vocabulary together with
the pre literacy skills of the pre schoolers and the toddlers who are in high risk by the
development of the teachers. Wasik and Hindman described an instance of a randomized control
study with the head teachers with the motive of the professional development or the usual
business group. The article provided an insight of the intervention of the personal development
together with the phonological sensitivity and the knowledge related to vocabulary of the
teachers within the san of 1 year for the development of high quality classroom environment.
The authors in the article explained the critical need for the improvement of the pre-literacy
experiences and the languages for the children of the low income families (Wasik &
Hindman, 2011). The article mainly analyses the professional development that is designed for
the improvement of the instruction and the language of the preschool teachers towards the
development of the literacy skills of the children. The methodology used in the article is the
randomized control method for the determination of unique contributions for the intervention of
the practice of the teachers in respect to the outcomes of the children.
Some of the relevant factors associated with the improvement of the literacy skills and
the improvement of the early languages are vocabulary and the oral languages, knowledge of the
alphabets, the phonological sensitivity, writing skills and the printing exposure. The article
furthermore evaluates the exceptional coaching for early language and literacy (ExCELL)
personal development model. An explicit concise critique for the findings of the study depicted
in the research paper expands the earlier works of the author including some of the systematic
trainings in the domain of pre-literacy and language development (Wasik & Hindman, 2011).
The result of the study conducted for the research illustrated the intensive and ongoing
development had a positive impact on the language quality created by the teachers in the

2EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
classrooms. The findings from the randomized control study suggested some of the essential
outcomes illustrating the intensive and the ongoing personal development that positively
impacted the language quality and the pre literacy experiences. The results of the study
furthermore highlighted on the fact that the teachers receiving the personal development plan
initiated significant help to the students who had demonstrated effective skill development on the
aspect of the achievement of the gap.
According to my personal insight, I feel that the study has been one of the essential piece
that showed the children in EXCELL classrooms towards their significance of gaining the
development of the vocabulary. Although the study was successful the moderate amount of the
data of the children were missing with numerous variables and introducing biasness to the data
thus maximizing the size of the sample. I furthermore believe that for an effective personal
development plan, clear and explicit data for the teachers needs to be provided for explaining the
opportunity for the processing of the information and the integration towards the classroom
practices.

3EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDIES
References
Wasik, B. A., & Hindman, A. H. (2011). Improving vocabulary and pre-literacy skills of at-risk
preschoolers through teacher professional development. Journal of Educational
Psychology, 103(2), 455-469. doi:10.1037/a0023067