Parent book choices: How do parents select books to share with infants and toddlers with language impairment?

Book-sharing with young children is an established vehicle for promoting early language development and pre-literacy skills. Although parents are widely encouraged to read to their child and existing interventions provide instruction on book-sharing strategies, there is a prominent lack of guidance for parents on how to choose the book itself. Importantly, there is a foundational lack of knowledge on the factors that parents take into consideration when choosing books to share with their young child. While understanding that parent book-choice is important for all children, it may be particularly important for those with language-impairment (LI), since book-sharing is an evidence-based intervention approach and widely recommended to promote language for LI populations. This qualitative study examines parents’ book selection choices, and the elements they consider, when choosing books to share with their infants and toddlers with LI. Participants included 13 parents of young children aged 19–29 months (9 males, 4 females; mean age = 25 months) receiving Part C services. Parent responses indicated that the most common themes considered included physical aesthetics, text difficulty, physical properties, educational considerations and content; the relative importance of these themes varied depending on context. Results are framed in the context of research on parent-child book-sharing interactions. Recommendations for practitioners working with parents and young children with LI during book-sharing are also highlighted.