Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify the differences between using literal and inferential prompts during a modified Dialogic Storybook Reading (DSR) intervention on the emergent comprehension skills of young children diagnosed with either Developmental Delay (DD) or Language Impaired (LI). Method: An alternating treatment design compared literal-only prompting during DSR and heavy inferential prompting on the comprehension of story element questions. Four (n=4) participants identified with either DD and/or LI in an early intervention preschool classroom received 7-9 weeks of DSR sessions in a large group. Results: All 4 participants in this study showed an immediate positive behavior change with the introduction of both treatment conditions. The magnitude of change varied with each participant. However, for each participant, treatment condition B2, mostly inferential, was either equal to or higher in slope trajectory. Conclusion: This investigation provided evidence that a mostly inferential modification to DSR contributed more to the overall improvement of young children’s emergent comprehension skills. While the overall effectiveness of traditional DSR was further supported, the comparison of treatment conditions revealed that a combination of treatments contributed more to increases in the emergent comprehension skill versus literal prompting alone.
