a271  1941  18 Jul 88
BC-EXP--How-Reading Books, Adv 21,0300
$adv21
For release Thursday, July 21, and thereafter
Strategy Helps Children Develop Language from Picture Books
By MALCOLM RITTER
AP Science Writer
    NEW YORK (AP) - Just an hour of training in how to read picture
books to children can help parents develop their children's language
skills, a new study suggests.
    Language development in children of trained parents ran an average
of six months or more ahead of other children, researchers reported
in the July issue of Developmental Psychology. Relatively simple
changes ''could have substantial positive effects on children's
language development,'' wrote G.J. Whitehurst and colleagues at the
State University of New York at Stony Brook.
    For the study, 29 children aged 21 to 35 months from intact
middle-class families in suburban Long Island were divided randomly
into an experimental group and a control group.
    Parents of children in the experimental group participated in two
half-hour training sessions. They were taught to encourage the child
to speak more often using open-ended questions, such as ''What is
happening in this picture?'' to repeat, expand and recast the child's
speech more, and to praise and correct the child's speech. They were
also told to cut down on straight reading and questions that could be
answered simply by pointing.
    Parents in the control group received no training.
    Parents in both groups read to their children the same amount during
the month of the experiment.
    At the end of the month, children in the experimental group scored
some 8 1/2 months ahead of the other children on a standard test
involving talking about objects. They scored six months ahead on a
test that involved naming objects.
    Nine months later they retained a six-month advantage in both tests.
    End Adv for July 21
    
 
 
AP-NY-07-18-88 2233EDT
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