The research behind Maple Kids

Maple Kids stories and Parent Guides are designed using published principles from shared reading, child development, social-emotional learning, parent-child interaction and guided practice.

• Shared Reading & Development

  The American Academy of Pediatrics states that shared reading can support parent-child relationships and social-emotional, cognitive, language and literacy development.

  Klass P, Miller-Fitzwater A, High PC, et al. “Literacy Promotion: An Essential Component of Primary Care Pediatric Practice.” Pediatrics. 2024;154(6):e2024069090.

  DOI: 10.1542/peds.2024-069090

• Shared Reading & Behavior

  Randomized research has found that interventions promoting parent-child shared reading and play can improve pathways associated with children's behavioral outcomes.

  Weisleder A, Cates CB, Harding JF, et al. “Links between Shared Reading and Play, Parent Psychosocial Functioning, and Child Behavior: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial.” Journal of Pediatrics. 2019;213:187-195.e1.

  DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2019.06.037

• Stories, Empathy & Prosocial Behavior

  A randomized study of four- to five-year-old children found that repeated shared reading of socially themed picture books was associated with improvements in empathy and prosocial behavior.

  Chen H, Lyu D, Zhu L. “The effectiveness of social-themed picture book reading in promoting children's prosocial behavior.” Frontiers in Psychology. 2025.

  DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1569925

• Stories & Emotion Regulation

  Structured emotion-themed picture-book activities have been associated with improvements in preschool children's emotion recognition, expression and regulation strategies.

  Wang L, Cui R, Wan N, Hu W. “Reshaping the Ability–Strategy Link in Emotion Regulation: The Role of a Structured Picture-Book Intervention for Preschoolers.” Behavioral Sciences. 2025;15(8):1137.

  DOI: 10.3390/bs15081137