cover image: Enhancing Young Children’s Language Acquisition through Parent–Child Book-Sharing : A Randomized Trial in Rural Kenya

20.500.12592/b09j45

Enhancing Young Children’s Language Acquisition through Parent–Child Book-Sharing : A Randomized Trial in Rural Kenya

7 Feb 2020

Worldwide, 250 million children under five (43 percent) are not meeting their developmental potential because they lack adequate nutrition and cognitive stimulation in early childhood. Several parent support programs have shown significant benefits for children’s development, but the programs are often expensive and resource intensive. The objective of this study was to test several variants of a potentially scalable, cost-effective intervention to increase cognitive stimulation by parents and improve emergent literacy skills in children. The intervention was a modified dialogic reading training program that used culturally and linguistically appropriate books adapted for a low-literacy population. We used a cluster randomized controlled trial with four intervention arms and one control arm in a sample of caregivers (n?=?357) and their 24, to 83, month-old children in rural Kenya. The first treatment group received storybooks, while the other treatment arms received storybooks paired with varying quantities of modified dialogic reading training for parents. Main effects of each arm of the trial were examined, and tests of heterogeneity were conducted to examine differential effects among children of illiterate vs. literate caregivers. Parent training paired with the provision of culturally appropriate children’s books increased reading frequency and improved the quality of caregiver-child reading interactions among preschool-aged children. Treatments involving training improved storybook-specific expressive vocabulary. The children of illiterate caregivers benefited at least as much as the children of literate caregivers. For some outcomes, effects were comparable; for other outcomes, there were differentially larger effects for children of illiterate caregivers.
kenya child care rural area old age blind child psychology comparative education educational development educational research gold standard household size industry multilingual education mother tongue instruction parent education population distribution psychiatry regression analysis social work comparative study health service rural community early childhood development cognitive development standard deviation school enrollment language development early education cross country analysis nutritional status growth and development role playing household wealth student learning childcare center socioeconomic status school readiness focus group adult health educational change linear regression regression model primary caregiver university degree developmental psychology housing quality grocery store standard error independent variable interaction effect working memory educational program phonological awareness language acquisition life course study area human subjects emergent literacy vocabulary development development research group educational sciences health care services industry skills development and labor market social protections and labor community support sanitation facility positive impact summary statistic treatment group social protections & assistance catchment area low-income family baseline data indigenous language learning and innovation credit living in poverty policy option grazing land nutrition intervention political will children's needs children of ages young child households with child local market baseline survey supplementary material target school spot check school base early grade regression results high poverty descriptive statistic cluster survey vulnerable child per household cultural norm e-mail address reading skill primary school child program impact early child development point estimate parent training micronutrient supplements children under age cognitive stimulation formal schooling rural parts measure of use household characteristic cognitive outcome early reading reading book differential treatment previous work early literacy present study family care children's development know how old children parental education disadvantaged child language of instruction higher-income countries assessment finding depressive symptom adequate nutrition age range household impact complete secondary school study design language skill durable asset program effect causal impact quantitative measure community perceptions child growth preschool program classroom setting treatment effect reading material strategic impact evaluation fund preschool-aged children incomplete primary school kindergarten teacher primary school year mango tree effects of poverty on children parental engagement ongoing research cost-effective intervention literacy outcome study group geographic spread child outcome home visit program larger school age of child study objectives parenting education picture book play material health, population & nutrition digital world child's home resources for child parent support several languages data collection procedure native speaker reading habit cooperation and assistance children's book availability of book developmental potential basic reading soil-transmitted helminths mother tongue literacy african children share technique book distribution local guides books for children african language mother-tongue literacy environment and children population program depression scale reading training national literacy program long-term research local children reading time language in school developmental assessment study in language ordinal index literacy instruction literate family

Authors

Knauer,Heather Ashley,Jakiela,Pamela,Ozier,Owen,Aboud,Frances E,Fernald, Lia C.H.

Disclosure Status
Disclosed
Doc Name
Enhancing Young Children’s Language Acquisition through Parent–Child Book-Sharing : A Randomized Trial in Rural Kenya
Document Date
2020-01-01
Published in
United States of America
Series Name
Author accepted manuscript
Total Volume(s)
1
Unit Owning
DECRG: Human Development (DECHD)
Version Type
Final
Volume No
1

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