Can inferencing be trained via shared book reading? A randomised controlled trial of parents’ inference-eliciting questions on 4-year-olds' inferencing ability.

Inferencing is essential for children’s understanding of extended discourse, but relatively little is known about which experiences might encourage inferencing skills during the preschool years. Using a randomised control trial, we tested the effect of increasing exposure to inferential questions during shared book reading on 4-year-olds’ inferencing abilities. We used parent-child book reading as a means of scaffolding the development of inferencing skills since some parents naturally ask their children inferential questions about shared stories. We measured whether doing so promotes the ability to make inferences in a socioeconomically diverse group of children.

100 four-year-olds were randomised to either an intervention or control condition according to CONSORT guidelines (Schulz, Altman, & Moher, 2010). Parents in the intervention condition were provided with story books that included inference-making questions, and were trained to engage in inference-eliciting dialogues while reading every day for a month. The children’s inferencing ability was assessed at baseline and post-test using a bespoke measure

The effect of the intervention on inferencing and general language ability will be discussed, alongside interactions with socioeconomic status. The RCT will be compared with other work investigating the development of inferencing skills.