Carers' talk to children with language difficulties during shared book reading and play 2016-2018

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.