The use of Dialogic Reading by family members can contribute significantly in increasing the vocabulary and expressive language of young children as evidenced by the academic research conducted by Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2000.

One of the first noteworthy benefits of Dialogic Reading is the marked improvement in the child’s writing skills, frequently witnessed by parents and teachers. Dialogic Reading is based on dialogue with the adult around the text read together and therefore stimulates in the child the interpretation of the story, the use of imagination, the search for suitable words to discuss the story and share it with the adult. Dialogic Reading opens the way for new words and synonyms and cognitive processes around the meaning of things. All these factors determine an improvement in the linguistic ability of children, an improvement that typically translates into an increase in the quality of the written texts and of the child’s oral skills. Although most of the studies from the early 2000s focused on preschool-aged children, the most recent studies also show similar benefits in language skills, both spoken and written, in children up to 12 years.

Dialogic Reading is therefore suitable for all families who intend to support children in the development of their language skills, even when in the presence of average or higher than average learning levels.