Shared Reading Within Latino Families: An Analysis of Reading Interactions and Language Use

Abstract

Storybook reading research with monolingual families suggests that adult strategies used during shared reading provide greater opportunities for children's verbal participation while facilitating their language and literacy skills. Research of this type with linguistic minority children is relatively uncommon. In the present study, 16 primarily Spanish-speaking Latina/o caregivers and their 7- to 8- year-old children participated in a home-based reading intervention in the families' primary language. Parents were taught shared reading strategies based on Whitehurst and colleagues' (1988) Dialogic Reading. Results show increases in parents' strategy use and overall verbal participation. Further, measures of children's productive language and relative participation increased significantly. This pilot study has implications for further research and intervention utilizing shared storybook reading within linguistic minority populations.