Effectiveness of Dialogic Book Reading Intervention on Lexical Development In the Lebanese Multilingual Context

Background
Dialogic Book Reading (DBR) is a shared reading technique believed to enhance lexical and narrative skills in children. Through this technique, adults facilitate children’s understanding and vocabulary use by engaging them in a variety of question-answers prompts and by making connections between book event and children’s own lives. Speech and Language Therapists (SLT) widely use it to better improve children’s language learning. However, in Lebanon, little is known about the use and the feasibility of such techniques in Lebanese children with developmental language disorders. This study aimed at exploring the feasibility of using this technique in Lebanese multicultural context and to examine the efficiency of this technique on expressive vocabulary and narrative skills development in L1.

Methods
2 Lebanese bilingual children with Developmental Language Disorder, aged 4; 10 and 5; 1 years old, were recruited for this single case study. Language evaluation and target words baseline were followed by the DBR sessions. The treatment uses a total of 9 books, including 3 sets of 3 books each and a total of 30 target words selected for this protocol. Their specific scripts and prompts were translated into Lebanese. Final materials and research protocol were in part based on two pilot studies (Austria and Lebanon) and on-going development of the final scripts of books. The treatment consists of 12 sessions of interactive book reading conducted by SLPs trained in the method. Continuous assessment of progress is conducted in every session through the administration of the target words probes at the end of each session.

Results
We expect that shared book reading will have a significant effect on enhancing the targeted vocabulary as well as children’s narrative skills.

Conclusions
DBR may be a promising technique in language intervention for children with DLD and may have a positive impact on their language skills. It is considered as an easy and ecological method of treatment that can also be used in schools and home settings. Nevertheless, caution should be considered regarding socio-economic and cultural factors that may influence such interventions.