Shared Reading Activities Research Articles

Validity and reliability study of the parent-child shared book reading inventory

This study aimed to adapt the original form of the “Parent-Child Shared Book Reading Survey” developed by Cutler (2020) to Turkish and to test its validity and reliability. During the adaptation process, the survey was translated into Turkish first, and then the expert opinion was sought for validity, followed by back translation. The adapted inventory was finalized after the pilot implementation. The validity study of the Parent-Child Shared Book Reading Inventory included testing the factor analysis assumptions for the following five questionnaires included in the inventory: Reading Skills Beliefs Scale for Shared Book Reading, Parents’ Reading and Writing Habits Scale, Parents’ Modeling for Reading-Writing Habits Scale, Shared Book Reading Activity Scale and Child’s Reading Habits Scale. Then exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was implemented to 332 parents with preschool children. The accuracy of the factor structures revealed by EFA was tested on a second data set with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on 158 parents. The results demonstrated that the Parent-Child Shared Book Reading Inventory is a valid and reliable measurement tool in assessing the quality and characteristic of parent-child shared book reading activities.

Sampling Engagement in Shared Reading Activities With Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Generalizability Study

Researchers seeking to make valid conclusions about engagement for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) must first determine the reliability of estimates obtained across the conditions sampled. Working from that premise, we conducted a secondary data analysis of shared book readings between caregivers and their children with ASD, examining the contribution of measurement error on estimates of four states of child engagement. Caregivers read two different book types, each three times, with their children. With book type and occasion as measurement facets, we conducted a generalizability study and a series of decision studies. With the interaction of Persons × Book Type × Occasion contributing the most measurement error for four engagement variables, we only found stable estimates for unengaged behaviors. For the active engagement, visual engagement, and disruptive variables, 4, 5, and more than 10 book types, respectively, were necessary to obtain stable estimates across two occasions.

What’s Happening to Shared Picture Book Reading in an Era of Phonics First?

AbstractLearning about being a reader is more than teaching phonics. A pilot study of shared picture book reading in early childhood education as a means to support young children in developing a broader understanding of literacy, in addition to phonics and phonological awareness, is discussed. The Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) (Pre‐K) tool was administered in six early childhood contexts, revealing a range of strengths and weaknesses in classrooms observed. There was little evidence of picture book reading playing an integral part of the early childhood literacy programs. Shared reading activities were absent in some contexts. In others, books were selected on the basis of length or a phonics focus. In an era of phonics first, this article is a timely reminder that shared reading of quality children’s literature can support development of a range of reading strategies including phonics while developing a joy for reading.

Building Comprehension Skills of Young Children With Autism One Storybook at a Time.

Purpose Reading involves the ability to decode and draw meaning from printed text. Reading skill profiles vary widely among learners with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). One fairly common pattern is relative strength in decoding combined with weak comprehension skills-indicators of this profile emerge as early as the preschool years. In order for children with ASD to develop a facility with language that prepares them for reading success, practitioners must intentionally create and provide appropriate instruction practices. Method In this tutorial, we describe ways in which practitioners can support language development and comprehension skills for children with ASD within the context of shared reading activities. We begin by providing known information about the reading performance of children with ASD using the Simple View of Reading as our guiding conceptual framework. Next, we present a number of practical, evidence-based strategies that educators can implement within the context of shared book reading activities. Case studies are embedded throughout the tutorial to demonstrate how practitioners may apply these strategies in their instructional settings. Conclusions Shared book reading interventions are a well-studied, developmentally appropriate approach for bringing about change in language and literacy in early childhood. The success of shared reading depends upon rich communication and interaction between the adult reader and the child. Many children with ASD will require strategies to support social communication and emergent literacy skill development (e.g., vocabulary knowledge, language comprehension) that are specifically linked to future reading comprehension.

The Effects of Shared e-Book Reading With Dynamic Text and Speech Output on the Single-Word Reading Skills of Young Children With Developmental Disabilities.

Purpose This study investigated the use of a new software feature, namely, dynamic text with speech output, on the acquisition of single-word reading skills by six children with developmental disabilities during shared e-book reading experiences with six typically developing peers. Method A single-subject, multiple-probe design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of the software intervention. Six children with developmental delays were the primary focus for intervention, while six children with typical development participated as peer partners in intervention activities. e-Books were created with the new software feature, in which a child selects a picture from the e-book and the written word is presented dynamically and then spoken out. These e-books were then used in shared reading activities with dyads including a child with a disability and a peer with typical development. Participants engaged in the shared reading activity for an average of 13 sessions over a 6-week time period, an average of 65 min of intervention for each dyad. Results Participants with disabilities acquired an average of 73% of the words to which they were exposed, a gain of 4.3 words above the baseline average of 1.7 correct responses. The average effect size (Tau-U) was .94, evidence of a very large effect. Conclusion The results provide evidence that the use of e-books with the dynamic text and speech output feature during inclusive shared reading activities can be an effective and socially valid method to develop the single-word reading skills of young children with developmental disabilities.

Shared Storybook Reading and Oral Language Development: A Bioecological Perspective.

Shared reading research has become increasingly multidisciplinary and has incorporated a multitude of assessment methods. This calls for an interdisciplinary perspective on children’s shared reading experiences at home and at the child care center and their relationships to oral language development. Here, we first discuss Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human development (Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006) regarding the relationship between shared storybook reading and oral language development. Second, we develop a framework for investigating effects of shared reading on language development in two important microsystems: the home literacy environment (HLE) and the child care literacy environment (CCLE). Zooming in on shared storybook reading as a proximal process that drives oral language development, we then develop a triad model of language learning through shared storybook reading that integrates approaches and evidence from educational psychology, developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, and corpus linguistics. Our model describes characteristics of children, adults, and books, and how their interplay influences shared reading activities. Third, we discuss implications for the Home Literacy Model (Sénéchal and LeFevre, 2002, 2014) regarding the conceptualization of shared reading as an important source of oral language development. Finally, to facilitate integrated research designs that include the two most important microsystems, we provide a critical discussion of assessment methods used in research that investigates the HLE and the CCLE and relate them to the shared reading triad in our bioecological model of shared storybook reading. We conclude with directions for future research.

Maternal Input and Child Language Comprehension During Book Reading in Children With Down Syndrome.

Purpose Communication interactions between parents and children during shared book reading impact a child's development of both language and literacy skills. This study examined maternal language input and child expressive communication during a shared book reading activity in children with Down syndrome (DS) and children with typical development (TD). Additionally, children's receptive language was examined to understand the relationship between maternal language input and child receptive language ability. Method Participants included 22 children with DS and 22 children with TD between 22 and 63 months of age and their mothers. Each mother-child dyad participated in a 7-min naturalistic shared book reading activity. Results Compared to mothers of children with TD, mothers of children with DS used significantly more utterances with less grammatical complexity, but a similar range of vocabulary diversity. Mothers of children with DS used more questions, descriptions, gestures, and labels, whereas mothers of children with TD used nearly half of their utterances to read directly from books. Children with DS communicated at a similar frequency compared to their peers with TD; however, they produced significantly fewer spoken words. Conclusions This study reveals important differences between early shared book reading interactions and provides implications for future research targeting parent-coached intervention strategies that may enhance children's learning during shared book reading by providing access to expressive language and print instruction.

Early Learning Environments for the Development of Attention: Maternal Narratives in the United States and Japan.

A large body of research has demonstrated cross-cultural differences in visual attention, especially between members of North American societies (e.g., Canada, United States) and East Asian societies (e.g., China, Japan, Korea). Despite an increasing number of studies suggesting an emergence of cross-cultural differences in early childhood, relatively little is known about how these culturally divergent patterns of attention are acquired and maintained. It has been largely assumed that socialization practices, especially parent-child interactions, contribute to the acquisition of cross-cultural differences in attention. By focusing on maternal narratives during the shared reading activity, this study examined the socialization contexts in which mothers direct their infants' attention in the United States (n = 50 dyads) and Japan (n = 53 dyads). Mothers in the United States and Japan read a picture book to their 6- to 18-month-old infants in the lab, and maternal narratives were coded to identify attention to focal objects and social interactions. Infants' sustained attention was also measured during shared reading. The findings demonstrated that during the shared reading activity, U.S. mothers were relatively more likely to focus on the focal objects than the background, whereas Japanese mothers were more likely to refer to the social interactions between focal objects and the background. Infants' age and gender were not related to maternal narratives, and infants' sustained attention was similar across cultures. Findings suggest significant cross-cultural differences in mother-infant interactions, which may act as scaffolds for infants to internalize their parents' cognitive styles.

Level of abstraction in parent–child interactions: the role of activity type and socioeconomic status

BackgroundVarious conversational contexts elicit stimulating parent–child interactions to a different degree. Shared reading, a scripted activity, is reported to elicit most abstract speech compared with other activities (e.g., toy play). Parental socioeconomic status (SES) is another key predictor of abstract talk. Shared reading can attenuate differences in abstract speech between SES groups. In the current study, we compared abstraction of parent–child interactions during nonscripted prompting board and shared reading activities. A prompting board is a complex picture around a certain theme, depicting a scenario (i.e., a picture suggesting a sequence of events), and is meant to elicit child speech.MethodWe observed 44 parent–child dyads (87% mothers; child Mage: 63 months) from various socioeconomic backgrounds during prompting board and shared reading discussions and coded interactions for level of abstraction.ResultsPrompting boards were found to elicit both more, and more highly abstract speech (particularly inferencing) than shared reading, and children contributed more often to the conversation. Additionally, most speech on the lowest level of abstraction occurred during prompting boards (e.g., labelling and locating). Shared reading elicited more talk on intermediate levels (e.g., describing aspects of objects and characters and making comparisons to the child's life). Moreover, high‐SES parents and children produced more highly abstract speech and less labelling and locating compared with low‐SES dyads during both activities. Shared reading did not attenuate SES differences in abstract interactions.ConclusionsPrompting boards seem promising for early intervention; however, future intervention studies are needed.

Training of early childhood teachers for the use of successful shared reading strategies.

Verify the effects of a training program held with pre-school teachers to carry out specific strategies in shared reading and generalize these strategies in other daily activities of oral language motivation. A total of 14 teachers from low socioeconomic level schools participated in the study. The teachers were randomly distributed in an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group attended training on how to use five strategies during shared reading in the classroom and discuss how to motivate their students towards oral language. To evaluate the effectiveness of training, two instruments were applied pre- and post-intervention. The Assessment Scale of Oral Language Teaching in School (EVALOE) was applied to analyze the teaching of oral language and the Checklist was used to characterize the behavioral changes of the teachers during shared reading. Overall, EVALOE data were higher at post-intervention analysis for 11 of the 13 participants. Checklist showed that 10 of the 13 teachers presented higher post-intervention total scores compared with their respective pre-intervention scores. The training program provided improvement in teacher behavior during shared reading activities and demonstrated to have a positive impact on the increase of interactions, previously identified in the literature as important for oral language motivation.

Book-Reading Engagement in Children with Autism and Language Impairment: Associations with Emergent-Literacy Skills.

Emergent-literacy skills are frequently taught within social interactions in preschool classrooms such as shared book reading. Children with impaired language and/or social engagement may have difficulty accessing these learning opportunities. Therefore, we sought to investigate the relationship between book-reading orientation during a teacher-led shared book reading activity and emergent-literacy skill development across three groups of preschool children; autism (n = 22), developmental language disorder (DLD; n = 23), and typical development (TD; n = 58). The children with autism demonstrated less book-reading orientation than their DLD and TD peers. Book-reading orientation was a significant predictor of residualized gains in print-concept knowledge and phonological awareness. Thus, book-reading orientation appears to play a critical role in preschooler's emergent-literacy skill development.

Shared storybook reading interactions between children with complex communication needs and their caregivers

Quality early home literacy experiences, specifically young children’s shared storybook reading experiences, have been identified as critical for establishing the foundations of reading and writing skills. Despite this, literature reports that children with complex communication needs (CCN) have limited exposure to literacy material. There is, however, a paucity of research regarding the home literacy experiences of children with disabilities specifically those with CCN and in developing countries contexts. This study aims to analyse the behaviours of both primary caregivers and their children with CCN during shared storybook reading using a descriptive, observational design. Twelve primary caregivers and their children participated in the study. The 12 participating dyads were video recorded during shared storybook reading activity. Their interactions were analysed using a communicative behaviour checklist coding communicative behaviour of both dyad participants during the shared storybook reading. Results were similar to previous studies conducted on children with CCN from developed countries. The caregivers showed higher rates of interaction as compared to their children, whilst they focused on labelling the pictures rather than reading the story verbatim. Although patterns of interaction varied across the caregivers, they seldom asked complex questions or related the story to the child’s utterances. The children, on the other hand, seldom asked questions or commented on the stories. Their interaction patterns could have been improved, should the children have had access to communication devices and caregivers guided on using strategies to facilitate learning during these shared literacy activities. Keywords: augmentative and alternative communication; caregiver-child interaction; communicative behaviours patterns; complex communication needs; literacy development

Okul Öncesi Dönemde Anne-Çocuk Birlikte Hikâye Kitabı Okuma Davranışlarının İncelenmesi

Araştırmanın amacı annelerin çocukları ile birlikte hikâye kitabı okuma davranışlarının incelenmesidir. Betimsel tarama modelinde desenlenen araştırmanın örneklemi çocukları anasınıflarına devam eden 436 anneden oluşmaktadır. Veriler ÇEBOE (Çocuk Ebeveyn Birlikte Okuma Etkinlikleri Ölçeği) ile toplanmıştır. Verilerin analizinde betimsel istatistiklere ek olarak, Student’s t testi, Mann-Whitney U testi, Tek Yönlü Varyans Analizi (ANOVA) ve Kruskal-Wallis H testi uygulanmıştır. Yapılan analizler sonucunda annelerin birlikte etkileşimli okuma, birlikte okumaya yönelik görüşler ve okuryazarlığın önemi boyutlarını her zaman, okuryazarlık öğretimini ara sıra ve okuryazarlığa model olma boyutunu nadiren gerçekleştirdikleri ortaya çıkmıştır. Ayrıca, annelerin çocukları ile birlikte okuma davranışlarının, anne eğitim düzeyi ve sahip olunan çocuk sayısına göre; çocuklarına kitap okuma sıklıklarına, kitap okumaya ayırdıkları zamana, çocuklarıyla birlikte okuyabilecekleri kitap sayısına ve çocuklarına ilk kitabı alma yaşına göre anlamlı farklılık gösterdiği görülmüştür.

Examining the Links between Parents’ Relationships with Reading and Shared Reading with their Pre-School Children

While much is known about the benefits of shared reading activity for children, and the role of the home in cultivating shared reading practices far less is known about the factors that can influence parents’ shared reading practices with their children. Given that many young people leave school with poor relationships with reading, this study explores the links between parents’ own relationships with reading and the shared reading they practice with their own children in the home. Drawing on deep-level interview data, this paper presents data from six parents of pre-school children, who reported that they have had a poor personal relationship with reading. These parents all developed positive shared reading relationships with their children, however the importance of this study lies in understanding the interplay between these reading relationships. The data strongly suggested that the construct of ‘reading’ was very different from the ways in which reading had previously been defined for these participants. Reading, within a shared reading context, was seen as a very flexible construct which included activities such as talking and telling stories. In some cases, parents’ own relationships with reading seemed to improve. Implications for intervention with other families are discussed.

Parents’ user experiences of augmented reality book reading: perceptions, expectations, and intentions

Parents play an important role in students’ informal learning with technology; however, there is a lack of relevant research, particularly regarding parents’ opinions on students’ learning with emerging technology such as augmented reality (AR). This study was therefore conducted in an initial attempt to explore parents’ user experience (UX) of reading an AR book with their children from the perspectives of perceptions, expectations, and intention. There were 47 pairs of parents and their children invited to participate in a shared AR book reading activity in this study. Each parent was interviewed for qualitatively understanding their UX of reading the AR book, and their intention to use AR books were also quantitatively measured. The results show that the parents exhibited several types of perceived UX (i.e., sense of reality, novelty, playfulness and entertainment, awareness, memory and knowledge, guiding, distracting, and antipathy) and expected UX (i.e., interactivity, portability, sense of touch, vivid animation, value-added, and suitability). The findings further addressed the relationships between the parents’ perceived and expected UX and their intention to adopt AR books for their children in the future. Some suggestions for the development and popularization of AR book systems are also proposed.

Understanding the barriers and motivations to shared reading with young children: The role of enjoyment and feedback

Shared reading with young children has a positive impact on a range of areas including language development and literacy skills, yet some parents face challenges in engaging in this activity. While much is known about the benefits of shared reading, the barriers to it are poorly understood. The research presented here draws on in-depth interviews with 20 parents of pre-school children to understand home-reading practices in a socio-economically and culturally mixed sample, exploring the motivations and barriers that exist to engaging in shared reading. Results indicate that parents are motivated to engage in shared reading when there is clear evidence of their child’s enjoyment. However, parental perceptions of ‘negative’ child-feedback could be a barrier to shared reading. This has particular implications for the age at which parents perceive reading to be a valued and worthwhile activity for their child, suggesting that some parents may choose not to read with their babies because they are not receiving the feedback they require in order to sustain the activity. Moreover, this study also revealed that, for many parents, their enjoyment of shared reading activity was closely related to evidence of child enjoyment, thus creating a further barrier to reading when child enjoyment was perceived to be absent. This has strong implications for interventions that seek to encourage and support home-reading practices between parents and young children.

Exploring Engagement in Shared Reading Activities Between Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Their Caregivers.

Reading aloud to children is a valued practice to promote emergent literacy and language skills that form the foundation for future reading success. We conducted a descriptive study of shared book reading practices between caregivers and their children with autism spectrum disorder (n = 17) and caregivers and their typically developing children (n = 20) to identify factors that can promote or inhibit children's engagement in reading. Caregivers and their children read nine books (familiar, non-fiction, fiction). Children with ASD demonstrated lower levels of passive engagement (looking at the book) and higher levels of non-engaged behavior compared to typically developing children. Caregiver reading quality and book type contributed to joint engagement during reading. Implications of these findings for intervention development are discussed.

Peer ecologies for learning how to read: Exhibiting reading, orchestrating participation, and learning over time in bilingual Mexican-American preschoolers’ play enactments of reading to a peer

This study investigates how a friendship dyad of preschool children enrolled in a bilingual Spanish-English Head Start preschool in California, predominantly serving Mexican-American families, enact and orchestrate in play the activity of reading aloud to a peer. It examines how the child leading the reading uses embodied and multimodal resources to exhibit themselves as reading, including using environmental couplings of talk and gesture (C. Goodwin, 2013) and how the peer being read to uses embodied resources to exhibit that they are attending to the reading (Erickson, 2004; Hindmarsh et al., 2011). It also tracks transformations of the children's publicly visible and embodied knowledge states (C. Goodwin, 1981) across time, specifically, across two episodes of reading spaced several months apart, to illustrate how a “trajectory of knowing-in-interaction,” or learning, (Melander, 2012), can be made visible. The examples contribute to a deeper understanding of the diverse ways in which children use verbal resources, their bodies and the material environment to accomplish the doing of reading as a public, shared, and mutually accountable activity. The examples also contribute to a deeper understanding of how children learn to act in culturally appropriate ways over time in shared reading activities, including how they “recalibrate” (M.H. Goodwin & Cekaite, 2013) reading action when expected embodied participation frameworks for doing reading are not exhibited from other participants.

Young children’s musical activities in the home

ABSTRACTThe association between human speech, language and communication (SLC) and participation in music is manifest in music education and psychology literature in a number of ways. Research studies into young children’s SLC are numerous and policy focus on this area of children’s learning and development and their later literacy has been intense. By contrast, there is a gap in research into young children’s musical worlds especially in the home, even though existing research shows the additional benefits of shared music activities over shared reading activities for children’s prosocial skills and music making for parent–child communication. This paper reports on a survey and interviews of parents carried out in England with a focus on the musical activities of children aged birth to five in the home. Contrary to previous studies, findings suggest that children participate in a range of spontaneous shared musical activities in the home daily. The factors that both promote and inhibit musical activities in the home for young children are highlighted. The study also shows that children are participating in a wide range of organised, structured musical activities outside the home. Research is needed to examine the quality of such activities and the appropriateness of formal musical activities for very young children to ensure that formality does not disturb spontaneity in young children’s musical worlds.

Reading Buddies: A Strategy to Increase Peer Interaction in Students With Autism

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often challenged by social interaction and may require substantial support to interact with peers even in inclusive settings. Having adults support students with ASD during peer interactions, however, may ostracize the student from peers without disabilities. Peer-mediated strategies are needed so that students with ASD and students without disabilities can interact in a variety of activities without undue reliance on adults. A peer-mediated approach to a shared reading activity is presented in which students without disabilities and students with ASD are taught a three-step strategy to increase social interactions around a story.