Tender Shoots: a parent book-reading and reminiscing program to enhance children’s oral narrative skills

Abstract Tender Shoots is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) for parents aimed at improving preschool children’s oral language skills relevant later reading. Parents of 72 children ( M = 50 months) were randomly assigned to either Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR) condition, Strengthening Sound Sensitivity (SSS) or an Activity-Based Control (ABC) condition. RRR SSS conditions involved dyads conversing about the same 12 books over 6 weeks, with focused on meaning story in relation own experiences, soundplay. Children’s narrative assessed listening comprehension retelling task before one-year post-intervention. At 1-year follow-up, retold stories greater accuracy g 0.61) quality 0.68) than did control promising tool help their production (retelling) skills.