Tracking the long-term effects of the Bookstart intervention: Associations with temperament and book-reading habits

Highlights

• This study tested the long-term impact of Bookstart on language skills assessed when children were 5–6 years old.

• Just as at 15 months, the data pattern aligns with differential susceptibility.

• The 50 % with a more difficult temperament in infancy remain behind without Bookstart.

• But outperform their peers with Bookstart.

Abstract

This study tested whether Bookstart – a program promoting book reading in infancy – continues to have an impact well into Kindergarten. We distinguished between children who were more or less challenging to read to in infancy (more or less temperamentally reactive). Eighty percent (n = 471) of a sample participating in a study when the children were one year old – about half involved in Bookstart – agreed to complete a home literacy survey when the children were, on average, 72.1 months. A smaller group (n = 318) also consented to collect tests concerning language and math at children's Kindergarten. The findings show that language development when they are about to start learning to read still profits from Bookstart. Especially the temperamentally most reactive 50 % shows benefits (d = 0.21). Bookstart also improved children's home literacy environment (longer book reading sessions), but this effect did not explain Bookstart's impact in Kindergarten.