Obesity is a complex and increasingly prevalent health disorder that is associated with a wide range of medical, social, and psychological difficulties. People are more likely to be obese if they consume an energy dense diet but do not engage in physical activity. Research has indicated that interventions, when implemented during childhood, have long-term outcomes that are superior to interventions implemented in adulthood. This research piloted a behaviourally based intervention programme, with parents as the agents of change, to promote a lifestyle change for inactive children. The programme focussed on increasing physical play (lifestyle activity) and on decreasing sedentary behaviour (an obesity promoting behaviour) during children's after school leisure time. The intervention was investigated using three case studies. Although no conclusive evidence was gained regarding the effectiveness of the pilot programme there was some evidence that children participating reduced their amount of sedentary behaviour and increased the amount of time they spent in physical play. There was also evidence that parents were able to administer the programme and that they found it useful. The results from the present study suggest that the development and application of parent administered behavioural programmes, in the form of packaged interventions to prevent child obesity, warrant further investigation both in terms of the benefits and costeffectiveness it could offer parents and practitioners alike.

The purpose of the study was to examine the feasibility of a dialogic book-reading intervention for bilingual preschool children with expressive vocabulary delays. The intervention was provided in English and Spanish concurrently to an experimental group of six children, while six children were in a delayed treatment control group. Dialogic book-reading has been shown previously to be effective with monolingual children, and the current study was the first to extend it to bilingual children. The children participating in the study were 22 – 41 months-old and were recruited from the waiting list of an agency providing speech-language services. The intervention was provided in English in the children’s homes by the primary investigator and in Spanish by the children’s mothers, who were trained in the techniques of dialogic book-reading. Thirty fifteen-minute sessions in each language using dialogic book-reading strategies were provided to each child in the intervention group over six weeks. The study examined the acquisition of ten target words selected for each child in English and Spanish separately, in addition to overall increases in the children’s vocabularies. The children in the intervention group learned significantly more target words in each language following the intervention than did the children in the control group. The children in the intervention group were also able to produce the acquired words at a delayed posttest six weeks following the posttest. The intervention also led to an improvement in the ability of the children in the intervention group to stay focused on book-reading tasks. The gains in the overall vocabulary of the children in the two groups did not differ significantly. The mothers’ evaluations of the intervention revealed their satisfaction with the approach. The mothers were successful in learning dialogic book-reading strategies and stated that they felt empowered to improve their child’s vocabulary development.

The purpose of the study was to examine the feasibility of a dialogic book-reading intervention for bilingual preschool children with expressive vocabulary delays. The intervention was provided in English and Spanish concurrently to an experimental group of six children, while six children were in a delayed treatment control group. Dialogic book-reading has been shown previously to be effective with monolingual children, and the current study was the first to extend it to bilingual children. The children participating in the study were 22 – 41 months-old and were recruited from the waiting list of an agency providing speech-language services. The intervention was provided in English in the children’s homes by the primary investigator and in Spanish by the children’s mothers, who were trained in the techniques of dialogic book-reading. Thirty fifteen-minute sessions in each language using dialogic book-reading strategies were provided to each child in the intervention group over six weeks. The study examined the acquisition of ten target words selected for each child in English and Spanish separately, in addition to overall increases in the children’s vocabularies. The children in the intervention group learned significantly more target words in each language following the intervention than did the children in the control group. The children in the intervention group were also able to produce the acquired words at a delayed posttest six weeks following the posttest. The intervention also led to an improvement in the ability of the children in the intervention group to stay focused on book-reading tasks. The gains in the overall vocabulary of the children in the two groups did not differ significantly. The mothers’ evaluations of the intervention revealed their satisfaction with the approach. The mothers were successful in learning dialogic book-reading strategies and stated that they felt empowered to improve their child’s vocabulary development.