Developing correspondence between the non-verbal and verbal behavior of preschool children.

Four preschoolers who could already read simple words took part. Each child first played alone with books while the team counted how many pages they read.

Next, any time a child said something nice about reading (“I like this book!”), the adult gave a small toy or sticker right away. The praise was always tied to the positive words, not to the act of reading itself.

Every child’s page count jumped as soon as the praise began. The jump held steady across three different books and four different kids.

When praise stopped, reading dropped. When praise came back, reading rose again. The link between nice talk and more reading was clear.

Bosley et al. (2024) later added a step-by-step prompt hierarchy for kids with autism. They still praised, but only after the child gave a correct response. The extra structure helped minimally verbal preschoolers join the same reading game.

Chin Wong et al. (2017) moved the idea beyond books. They used function-feature-class prompts to spark new answers to questions like “Tell me things that are red.” Reinforcing those answers grew creative talk in children with autism.

Storch et al. (2012) showed the power of adding a “watch and say” rule. Children with autism copied each sight word a peer read aloud and then read alone. Pairing spoken words with seeing the word built stronger reading than seeing alone.

You can grow reading, or any skill, by first reinforcing the words the learner says about it. Catch the positive talk the moment it happens and hand over a quick reinforcer. If the child needs help speaking, layer in prompts like Bosley did, but keep the praise immediate. The 1968 lesson is still the fastest Monday move: reward the nice words and the pages will turn.