Reading to children has been shown to be instrumental in the development of language and reading skills as well as experience-based brain development (e.g., Klass, Needleman, & Zuckerman, 2010). As such, reading aloud to young children serves a number of important developmental purposes, including children’s intellectual, language, motor, sensory, and socio-affective development (Marsolais, 2013).
The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a large-scale reading awareness community intervention on parent-infant interactions for at-risk, low-risk, and control group families. More specifically, we want to determine whether this reading awareness intervention influences: (a) awareness of the importance of reading as a vehicle to enhance the overall global development of the infant; (b) beliefs and attitudes of the parents while ascertaining the resources that are available to them; (c) reading as a mechanism to foster positive parent-infant interactions; and, finally, (d) parents’ verbal and nonverbal behaviours at 2 months and 6 months of age.
