Parent Teaching Using the Enhanced Moved by Reading to Accelerate Comprehension in English Intelligent Tutoring System to Teach Question-Asking During Shared Book Reading in Latino Families.

Abstract

Purpose: The Parent-Enhanced Moved by Reading to Accelerate Comprehension in English (Parent EMBRACE) program offers a bilingual parent-training literacy intervention for Latino families. Within the context of shared book reading, the application leverages both the home language and technology to increase parent question-asking during shared reading. Research goals were to (a) examine the potential of the Parent EMBRACE tutoring system at teaching parents to increase the quantity and variety of their question-asking during shared book reading, (b) examine changes to parents' reading attitudes or motivation, and (c) examine whether children's reading attitude is correlated with parent interactions.

Method: Twenty-one participants were randomized into three conditions: a digital storybook (DS) group (n = 7), an interactive storybook (EMBRACE) group (n = 6), and a parent-teaching interactive storybook (Parent EMBRACE) group (n = 8). Participants received iPads with digital storybooks for use during the intervention (in which the parent-teaching group received prompts from the app to ask questions while reading). Shared book reading assessments before and after the intervention involved hard-copy books, and behaviors were analyzed using video-recorded reading sessions before and after the intervention. Group differences were explored using descriptive analysis. Reading attitude and motivation were measured through pre- and post-intervention surveys. The relationship between parent interactions and reading attitudes was explored through regression.

Results: Results indicate that after the intervention, four out of seven parents in the parent-teaching interactive storybook group asked more questions to their children. Parents' reading attitudes and motivations did not significantly change. There was a nonlinear relationship with parent interactions and children's reading attitude.

Conclusion: Overall, the Parent EMBRACE tool shows feasibility and warrants further study on its efficacy as a linguistically responsive literacy-based language intervention for Latino parents to develop shared book reading strategies.