T ender Shoots: a parent book-reading and reminiscing program to enhance children’s oral narrative skills

Abstract

Tender Shoots is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) for parents aimed at improving preschool children’s oral language skills relevant for later reading. Parents of 72 preschool children (M = 50 months) were randomly assigned to either a Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR) condition, a Strengthening Sound Sensitivity (SSS) condition, or an Activity-Based Control (ABC) condition. RRR and SSS conditions involved dyads conversing about the same 12 books over 6 weeks, with RRR focused on the meaning of the story in relation to children’s own experiences, and SSS focused on soundplay. Children’s oral narrative skills were assessed with a story listening comprehension and retelling task before and one-year post-intervention. At the 1-year follow-up, children in RRR retold stories with greater accuracy (g = 0.61) and quality (g = 0.68) than did children in the control condition. Tender Shoots RRR is a promising tool for parents to help their children’s narrative production (retelling) skills.