Our Turn to Talk: oral language intervention for at-risk primary students

This study investigated the effectiveness of the Our Turn to Talk Intervention Program (OTTT-IP) for seven language-delayed Grade 1 students in improving oral narrative skills and vocabulary development. Pre-intervention data was collected by first examining the students' Peabody Picture Vocabulary: Third Edition (PPVT-III) scores and conducting and analyzing an oral narrative task in which students each told a story based on a sequence of pictures. After the designated nine-week intervention, students were reassessed. Improved oral narrative skills, as measured by the number of words and story features (e.g. story starter, descriptive words, inferences) used, were found for all seven participants in this research. The students' percentile scores on the PPVT-III were inconsistent: five students increased percentiles, one student stayed the same, and one student scored lower. The OTTT-IP improved oral language skills for these seven at-risk students.