Do It Together: Joint Book Reading Behaviors of Parent and Children with and without a Developmental Language Disorder
Summary
Interactive joint book reading (JBR) is an important activity to promote language development of
preschoolers. This could be even more important for preschoolers with a Developmental Language
Disorder (DLD). Therefore, the current study examined whether parents of preschoolers with DLD use
the same JBR behaviors as parents of preschoolers without DLD and whether parent self-assessment
relates to the researchers’ observations. A group of parent-child dyads with DLD and a group without
DLD were videotaped during JBR, and parent and child behaviors were coded according to an
observation tool. Parents filled out a questionnaire about the same observed JBR behaviors. No
differences were found in JBR behaviors between the two groups according to both the researchers’
observations and self-assessment. The measurements of the parent JBR behaviors highly correlated
between the researchers’ observations and parent self-assessment for both groups. This report can be
used to develop new interventions to promote interactive JBR behaviors for parents of children with
DLD.