Lynne Murray|Leonardo De Pascalis|Mark Tomlinson|Zahir Vally|Harold Dadomo|Brenda MacLachlan|Charlotte Woodward|Peter Cooper
Randomized controlled trial of a book?sharing intervention in a deprived South African community: effects on carer–infant interactions, and their relation to infant cognitive and socioemotional outcome
University of Reading|Stellenbosch University|University of Cape Town|University of Reading|Stellenbosch University|University of Reading|University of Parma|University of Reading|University of Bath|University of Reading|Stellenbosch University|University of Cape Town
background consistent evidence highincome countries hic previously showed informal periurban settlement lowmiddle income country training parents book sharing infants benefitted infant language attention vally murray tomlinson amp cooper investigated whether benefits explained improvements carerinfant interactions booksharing nonbooksharing contexts also explored whether infant socioemotional development benefitted book sharing methods conducted randomized controlled trial khayelitsha south africa carers 1416monthold infants randomized 8 weeks training book sharing n 49 waitlist control group n 42 addition cognitive measures reported previously independent assessments made base line followup carerinfant interactions book sharing toy play assessments also made followup infant prosocial behaviour help task infant imitation doll characters nonsocial actions interpersonal interaction eightytwo carerinfant pairs 90 assessed followup trial registration isrctn 39953901 results carers received training showed significant improvements booksharing interactions sensitivity elaborations reciprocity smaller extent toyplay interactions sensitivity infants intervention group showed significantly higher rate prosocial behaviour tended show frequent imitation interpersonal interaction improvements carer behaviour book sharing toy play mediated intervention effects infant cognitive outcomes tended mediate intervention effects infant interpersonal imitation conclusions training book sharing simple inexpensive intervention shown benefit infant cognitive development lowmiddle income country also shows promise improving infant socioemotional outcomes context benefits mediated improvements carerinfant interactions particularly booksharing contexts