Rx for Success: RCT of an App for Dialogic Reading Training

"The Rx for Success (RS) mobile application (app) was developed by the non-profit, Children, Inc. The app is designed to be informational and motivational with both video and cueing content. The app uses a View It, Cue It, Do It model that allows parents to quickly download the smartphone app, view brief videos of age-indexed, research-based language enrichment practices; and regulate a push notification cueing program. Videos embedded in the RS app provide a summary of dialogic reading tailored for the child's age, and suggestions for encouraging verbal interactivity and social-emotional engagement through dialogic reading. Key behaviors reinforced by the app include discussing the story before reading to build interest and enthusiasm, followed by interactive reading modeled by specific types of verbal/behavioral prompts for the parent to make and responses to what the child says or does."

Control families will receive a new, specially designed children's book regarding limiting screen-based media use and encouraging healthy/active alternatives (Baby Unplugged: Play, Hutton/Jones, blue manatee press), which lists American Academy of Pediatrics screen time recommendations on the back cover.