This study examines the impact of interactive reading activities (ALI) on the cognitive and language development of pre-school-aged children. One hundred twelve children benefit from the interventions of three programs (ALI-Bébé, ALI-Bambin et ALI-Explorateur). These programs are established in the home, in day-care centres or in both contexts. We evaluate the cognitive and language development of children before they begin the programs, and again after 6 months of application. Overall, the children’s standardized scores were significantly higher after the programs. We observed a difference between the programs – the development scores increase significantly for children in the ALI-Bébé and ALI-Bambin programs, but not for those in the ALI-Explorateur program. The size of gains does not differ from one settingcontext to another. Our results also reveal that the intervention leads to significant gains in expressive language and non-verbal abilities scores. The discussion revolves around these findings. Our study highlights the effectiveness of programs based on interactive reading activities as a means of raising the cognitive and language development of children during the pre-school years.