Study title

The aim of this research was to explore whether the advantages of shared book reading (the joint attention and high quality adult language input) remain true where children have language difficulties. We compared parents' input to their young children with language difficulties during shared reading and play activities. Sharing books with young children is potentially an excellent opportunity for language development. The children and adults are jointly focused on the same words and pictures, and the text in children’s books tends to have a more varied vocabulary and more accurate and complex grammar than child-directed speech during play. However, in shared reading interventions, the best results have been shown for children who are already progressing well with spoken communication. Children who are at risk for language development (for example because of a slow start to talking, a family history of problems, or socio-economic disadvantage) have benefited less.The most cost-effective way to tackle the root causes of many social and educational problems is to intervene early in children's lives, before the problems have had a chance to entrench. Key to this strategy is improving children's language development in the early years. Children who enter school with good language skills have better chances in school, better chances of entering higher education, and better economic success in adulthood. Reading is very effective at boosting children's language. Children who read regularly with their parents or carers tend to learn language faster, enter school with a larger vocabulary of words and become more successful readers in school. Because of this, local authorities often commission services to promote family-based shared book reading (e.g. the Bookstart programme). However, recent studies suggest that shared book reading interventions work less effectively for children from disadvantaged backgrounds than originally thought, particularly when their parents...