The effectiveness of training mothers as home reading tutors was assessed using a sample of 42 mother-child pairs. The children were aged 8 to 9 yr. Analyses showed that the amount of time parents spent listening to a child read at home was positively related to both reading accuracy and comprehension scores. A short group-program training mothers as home reading tutors achieved the anticipated changes in mothers' behaviours: delayed intervention, increased use of meaning and contextual cues rather than direct word prompts, and greater use of praise. Children's reading accuracy was marginally improved and reading comprehension was significantly increased as a result of training the mothers as home reading tutors.
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