LAUSR

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to develop a book sharing intervention to support the language development of infants and toddlers from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Low-income parents were engaged in a collaborative inquiry to develop ‘Little Talks’. Parents were assigned to three small groups that independently participated in intervention iterations. Iterations were sequenced so that qualitative data collected during the preceding iteration were analysed to inform modifications to refine the subsequent intervention. Book sharing interventions were administered through eight home visits by members of the research team. Starting with Dialogic Reading, qualitative data highlighted needs to produce an intervention that met a range of parental preferences and that was flexible in meeting parents’ readiness to acquire new strategies. Little Talks emerged as an intervention that fostered multiple approaches to book sharing by forming and delivering book sharing strategies according to parents’ preferences and needs.