The effect of shared reading on language development is smaller than reported in previous meta-analyses

Shared book reading is thought to have a positive impact on young children’s language development, with shared reading interventions often run in an attempt to boost children’s language skills. However, despite the volume of research in this area, a number of issues remain outstanding.

This meta-analysis explored whether shared reading interventions are equally effective (a) across a range of different outcome variables; (b) for children from different SES groups; and (c) across a range of study designs.

The results show that, while there is an effect of shared reading on language development, this effect is smaller than reported in previous meta-analyses (g ̅ = 0.231, p < .001). They also show that this effect is moderated by the type of control group used and is negligible in studies with active control groups (g ̅ = 0.038, p = .584). Finally, they show limited effects of differences in outcome variable, no effect of socio-economic status and near zero effects for studies with follow-ups (g ̅ = 0.089, p = .218).