Changes in Quality of Parent Language during a Book-Sharing Intervention for Infants & Toddlers

• In Event: Poster Session 07
  In Poster Session: PS 07 Topic - Language, Communication

Abstract

High-quality shared book reading between parents and children is an evidence-based approach to early language and preliteracy promotion (Hutton et al., 2015; National Early Literacy Panel, 2008). The book-sharing context offers predictable interactive routines for parents and young children and the quality of those routines facilitates the development of socioemotional, attention and language skills (Ninio, 1983). Book-sharing provides parents more frequent opportunities for the use of language-facilitation strategies than other daily contexts (Fletcher et al., 2005). Interactive book reading is a vehicle for bridging the gap in a child’s heard vocabulary; recent estimates show reading 1 picture book each day exposes a child to a cumulative 1.4 million more words before kindergarten than those not read to (Logan, Justice, Yumus, & Chaparro-Moreno, 2019).
Ready, Set, Share a Book! was developed for parents of infants and toddlers to teach them book-sharing skills that promote language development (BLINDED). This intervention was implemented over the course of 8 weeks in a small randomized control trial. Parents showed significant increase in their use of high-quality book-sharing strategies (t(13)=5.81, p<.001, d=1.61) (BLINDED). However, the impact of the increased use of strategies on parental language quality is yet un known. This presentation will examine two research questions: (1) How does the quality of parent language use (mean length of utterance in morphemes (MLU-M) and number of different words (NDW)) during book-sharing interactions change throughout the course of the Ready, Set, Share a Book! intervention?; and (2) How does the use of high-quality book sharing skills affect the quality of parent language use during book-sharing interactions?
Methods: During the Ready, Set, Share a Book! intervention parents (n=14) received weekly group instruction over 8 sessions (30 minutes each) on high-quality book-sharing skills and then implemented the skills during a 5-minute interaction with 1:1 coaching. Parent-child book-sharing interactions were coded offline by trained coders for frequency of book-sharing skills; they were also transcribed and coded with Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) conventions. Measures of parent language quality (MLU-M, NDW) were calculated using SALT.
Results: Research question one was answered through two repeated measures one-way ANOVAs with a Greenhouse-Geiser correction. Parents’ mean MLU-M differed statistically significantly between the 8 weeks (F(2.94, 11.76)=3.63, p=.046; figure 1) as did parents’ mean NDW (F(2.59,10.38)=8.29, p=.005; figure 2). To answer research question two, two linear regressions were calculated to predict MLU-M and NDW based on parent total rate of book sharing skill use. A significant regression equation was found for MLU-M (F(1,99)=15.078, p<.001) with an R2 of .13 and for NDW (F(1,99)=21.595, p<.001) with an R2 of .18.
Conclusions: Results indicate that a brief 8-session book-sharing intervention to teach parents high-quality book-sharing skills measurably improves the quality of their language use in their interaction with their child measured both by vocabulary diversity and syntax. The rate of parent’s use of high-quality book-sharing skills also predicted parent language quality throughout the 8 weeks. This provides evidence for pathways which the book-sharing context can enhance the early language environment of young children.

Authors

• Corinne Walker, University of Kansas Medical Center
  Presenting Author

• Mackenzie Deboer, University of Kansas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Margaret Blackburn, University of Kansas
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brenda J Salley, University of Kansas Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author

• Debora A Daniels, University of Kansas Medical Center
  Non-Presenting Author