Maternal use of instructional supports during phonological awareness intervention for children with specific language impairment

The present study examined the implementation processes associated with a home-based phonological awareness intervention. Thirteen mothers and their 4-year-old children with specific language impairment (SLI) read books four times per week over twelve weeks; each book contained nine embedded phonological awareness (PA) tasks. Book reading sessions were coded for three variables of interest: the quality of maternal instructional support, the quantity of maternal instructional support, and the accuracy of children's responses to the PA tasks. A latent growth curve model was used to examine trends for these three variables within each week and across the overall program. In addition, a bivariate growth curve model was used to investigate whether changes in maternal supports related to changes in the accuracy of children's responses to the PA tasks.;Results indicated that mothers reduced the quality of support that they provided to children within each week of the program and as the program progressed. Likewise, the mothers reduced the quantity of support provided within a given week, although there was significant variability among the mothers regarding how they reduced support over the course of the program. Concerning the children's responses, results indicated that children's accurate responses increased both within each week and across the program. Analyses concerning the association between maternal supports and children's responses showed that mothers who provided higher levels of quality or quantity of support overall had children who answered more of the PA tasks accurately at the onset of the study. However, when this association was examined by reading session, maternal quality of support at any given point in time did not simultaneously relate to children's responses, although higher levels of quantity of support at a given time point were related to fewer accurate responses from children during that same point in time.;Overall, the results of this study suggested that the overall quality and quantity of maternal support provided during embedded storybook reading sessions related to children's performance on the PA tasks. However, given the decline in quality of support observed across the course of the program and the variability in how mothers withdrew the quantity of support that they provided to children, mothers may need to work closely with professionals when creating and implementing emergent literacy programs in order to maximize program benefits for children.