The Effects of Parent-Child Literacy Training Using Content Acquisition Podcasts with Children At-Risk for Reading Disability

The purpose of this multiple baseline single subject study was to investigate the effects of Content Acquisition Podcasts (CAPs) to provide literacy training to parents of young children with or at-risk for disability. A total of three mother-child dyads participated in the 10-week study. The intervention focused on increasing parent-child interactions in the home through shared storybook reading and language interactions. During baseline each mother read to their child using books provided by the researcher. In addition, each child was asked to wear a digital language processor (DLP) for 8-12 hours at a time to record daily language interaction in the home. During the intervention phase, three mothers watched a CAP on shared storybook reading and language interaction each week for a total of five weeks. After watching the CAP, the mother received a book and was asked to read the book three times with the child throughout the week. Dependent variables included a shared storybook reading question scale (adapted from the ACIRI) and Digital Language Processor (DLP) language interaction recordings. The question scale focused specifically on the number of questions asked, the number of print or picture references, and the number of times the mother responded or expanded on the child’s verbalizations.
Keywords: emergent literacy, early literacy, family literacy, shared storybook reading, dialogic reading