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Beneficial effects of BookStart in temperamentally highly reactive infants

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 36; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.lindif.2014.10.008

1873-3425

H. Berg, Adriana G. Bus,

Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

At the birth of their child, parents living in areas where BookStart has been adopted receive a Package containing a baby book, a CD, and a flyer about book sharing. In this study we tested whether this extensive, nation-wide intervention is a stimulus for language development. Three hundred and fifty-nine 'BookStart families' were compared with 225 control families. Assessments took place when the infant was 8 months old, and 7 months later. The overall effects of BookStart on language development at 15 months were small (d = 0.05) but moderately high (d = .46) in a sub-sample of temperamentally highly reactive children (25% of the sample). Findings were in line with the differential susceptibility model. A reactive temperament proved a risk factor for language development, due to low verbal stimulation from parents in the first years, but an asset when parents increased verbal parent–child interaction under the influence of BookStart.