Impacts of a personalized book giveaway intervention in low-SES households

This study reports whether a personalized book giveaway intervention boosts both parents’ perception about their 33-month-old (52% female) children’s interest in books and reading (through a children’s reading interest scale, and report of the child’s favorite book), as well as child and adult engagement during shared reading. 198 Chilean families, recruited from childcare centers serving low-income families, were randomly assigned to personalized (n = 81), comparison (n = 63), and control (n = 54) groups. The intervention indicated partial effectiveness, as after two weeks of repeatedly reading the given book, families from the personalized group reported higher odds that their children have a favorite book than the odds in the comparison and control groups. Moreover, families who read the personalized book had higher likelihood of mentioning the title of the gifted and other book than the comparison group. However, the comparison group scored higher than the personalized group in terms of children’s interest in books. Additionally, more verbal (children say more words, take more turns, including extended turns, and make more comments that link the story with their own lives) and some—but not all—affective engagement indicators (laughs, enjoyment) were identified in dyads who read the personalized book than those who read a comparison. In contrast, on the scale of perception of interest in books, the comparison group obtained a greater average rating of perceived child interest than the control group. Implications are discussed for refining interventions with low-SES families that favor early exposure to reading and exploring ways to scale up this intervention modality.