Evaluation of Narrative Skills of Children and Language Inputs of Parents During Shared Book Reading.  A Parent-Mediated Home-Based Intervention Study

Abstract

Background: Shared book reading (SBR) is a crucial activity fostering parent-child interaction and promoting children’s early language and emergent literacy skills. SBR interventions are carried out less in low- and middle-income countries. Hence, there is a need for research in such settings. Aim: The present study focuses on providing SBR training to parents and assesses parents’ interactive storybook reading and changes in the child’s narrative development at baseline, postintervention, and follow-up. Method: A total of 210 parents and typically developing child dyads participated in this study, 105 in experimental and control groups. The children from the experimental group participated in one-on-one book reading interactions with their parents after receiving training. Parents in the control group were not trained to read with their children. One week after the training sessions and 2 months later, children and parents were tested to determine whether the training led to beneficial effects. Result: The data were analyzed by x2 test, Kruskal Wallis 1-way ANOVA on ranks with Student Newman Keuls multiple comparison test (post-hoc test), and 3-way ANOVA with a post-hoc multiple comparison test. During 2 postintervention sessions, parents and children assigned to the intervention group significantly increased the targeted interactive shared reading skills. This result indicates that the intervention successfully changed parent SBR behaviors ( P < .001), resulting in improved child’s narrative skills ( P < .001). Conclusion: The current findings can aid in the creation of intervention programs to support parents’ SBR skills and promote children’s overall development.