Beyond book reading: Narrative participation styles in family reminiscing predict children’s print knowledge in low-income Chilean families

Abstract

Narratives in reminiscing contexts are an important tool in developing literacy abilities. We examined whether parents’ narrative participation styles in reminiscing contexts were related to gains in children’s vocabulary and print knowledge. Participants were 210 low-income Chilean parents and their pre-kindergarten children (M=53months). Parents and children were videotaped discussing a past positive and negative experience at the beginning of pre-kindergarten. Children’s vocabulary and print knowledge were assessed at the beginning and end of pre-kindergarten. Parents’ narrative styles in conversations about negative, but not positive, experiences had differential predictive power over children’s print knowledge, but not vocabulary, longitudinally. Implications for policy makers, researchers and educators working with low-income Chilean families are discussed.