International literature has long highlighted how intensive interventions involving reading aloud, combined with dialogue and discussion on shared content, can mitigate the effects of socio-economic disadvantage. Numerous studies have also underscored the transformative potential of reading and reading aloud in the development of children across different age groups. More recent research confirms that systematic and intensive exposure to reading aloud can significantly enhance fundamental cognitive skills such as planning, attention, and memory, with particularly pronounced benefits for students starting from lower baseline levels. Moreover several studies consistently demonstrate the significant benefits that adult-mediated shared reading practices can have on children's linguistic development.

The present research work is part of a broader project aimed at integrating shared aloud reading into the educational system, from preschool to lower secondary schools.

The main objective of this study was to analyze the effect of shared reading aloud on primary school children's ability to complete verbal fluency tasks. The study was conducted with a sample of 108 first-grade students, divided into a control group that followed regular activities and an experimental group exposed to the shared aloud reading method. The intervention was based on a structured framework with five core principles: daily practice, systematicity, intensity, progression, and bibliodiversity. Teachers followed a consistent daily schedule, ensuring regular exposure to the method. Each session started with shorter, simpler texts to engage students and help them become familiar with the process, gradually advancing to longer and more complex narratives. The test assessed lexical size, lexical access speed, and lexical organization through two subtests. In the phonemic fluency task, the participant was required to generate as many words as possible that begin with a specific phoneme within a set time limit. The semantic fluency task was similar, but instead of phonemes, the participant must produced words belonging to the same semantic category within the time limit. The score was based on the number of correct words produced within that time. The assessment was conducted at two distinct points: before the intervention began (T0) and after its completion, approximately six months later (T1). The collected data were analyzed using a mixed-design 2x2 ANOVA, with time (T0 and T1) as a within-subjects factor and group (experimental and control) as a between-subjects factor. This study highlights the significant impact that shared reading aloud can have on the language development of first-grade students, underscoring the importance of an effective method. Indeed, the group that engaged in daily structured reading sessions showed significant gains in verbal fluency skills, unlike the control group, which continued with standard classroom activities.

Keywords: Shared reading aloud, primary school, verbal fluency, language development.