Sharing Tales That Teach: Protocol for a cohort-embedded randomised trial of caregiver-delivered emotion-focused shared reading in young children

<title>Abstract</title> <p>Background: Emotion regulation is a central developmental capacity in early childhood. Shared picturebook reading may support its development through caregiver–child interaction, emotion-focused dialogue and co-regulation, but direct intervention evidence remains limited. This study will evaluate whether caregiver-delivered emotion-focused shared reading improves child emotion regulation relative to standard dialogic reading and whether effects extend to executive function. Methods: This longitudinal cohort study includes an embedded, two-arm, parallel-group randomised superiority trial. Approximately 400 caregiver–child dyads with children aged 4–5 years will be recruited through state primary schools in south London. Within the cohort, approximately 200 dyads will be randomised 1:1 after baseline assessment to an eight-week emotion-focused shared-reading intervention or standard dialogic reading active control. The three primary outcomes at 12-month follow-up are caregiver-reported child emotion regulation measured using the Emotion Regulation Checklist, child-reported emotion regulation measured using SAY-FEEL and resting-state frontal alpha asymmetry. Secondary outcomes include child executive function, caregiver self-efficacy, psychological distress, emotion-regulation difficulties, caregiver executive function and additional EEG indices. Primary outcomes will be analysed separately using baseline-adjusted intention-to-treat models, with family-wise type I error controlled using Holm’s sequential procedure. The wider cohort will contribute exploratory longitudinal analyses of developmental change and caregiver, child and contextual associations. Discussion: The active comparator will estimate the added effect of emotion-focused scaffolding beyond structured shared reading. The cohort-embedded, multimethod design will contextualise trial effects and inform potential larger-scale evaluation. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT07666802 (https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT07666802).</p>