While the association between shared book reading (SBR) and child language development is well documented, there has been less focus on how book characteristics may differentially elicit parents' language input and hence differentially relate to children's language skills during this activity. Moreover, despite the positive and unique role that…

There is a great deal of variability in how families read and interact with picture books. To understand why reading practices may (or may not) relate to language outcomes, a necessary step to understand what occurs in the home. The goal of this work is to better understand the frequency and nature of picture book reading at home with children…

Snakes and spiders are two of the most commonly feared animals worldwide, yet we know very little about the mechanisms by which such fears are acquired. We explored whether negative information about snakes and spiders from parents shapes children's fear beliefs. Study 1 included 27 parents (22 mothers, five fathers) and children (12 female, 15…

The development of 4- to 6-year-olds' narrative skills was investigated in relation to their receptive vocabulary, grammar, and home literacy environment. At Time One, 82 children aged 4 to 6 years completed standardised assessments of cognitive ability, vocabulary, and grammar. Narrative production and comprehension were assessed by the narration…

Previous research on infant-directed speech (IDS) and its role in infants' language development has largely focused on mothers, with fathers being investigated scarcely. Here we examine the acoustics of IDS as compared to adult-directed speech (ADS) in Norwegian mothers and fathers to 8-month-old infants, and whether these relate to direct…

Book-sharing with young children is an established vehicle for promoting early language development and pre-literacy skills. Although parents are widely encouraged to read to their child and existing interventions provide instruction on book-sharing strategies, there is a prominent lack of guidance for parents on how to choose the book itself.…

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…

This paper investigates mothers' views regarding the purpose of shared reading with their two-year-old children, confidence in using printed and electronic texts, and self-reported practice, framed around a focus on mothers' motivation to engage in shared reading with their children. Research into adult-child shared reading experiences has…

Children use language structures as a basis for learning how to read. Therefore, literacy learning for young children must incorporate the child's personal use of oral language. It is their personal oral language that supports them as they attempt new concepts and become better readers. Because of the important role that oral language plays in a…

Following a previous study (Cheng & Tsai, 2014. "Computers & Education"), this study aimed to probe the interaction of child-parent shared reading with the augmented reality (AR) picture book in more depth. A series of sequential analyses were thus conducted to infer the behavioral transition diagrams and visualize the continuity…

There exists an abundance of literature on the use of wordless picturebooks in literacy development, yet very little research exists on their use in the South African context. South Africa is facing what researchers have referred to as a 'national crisis of reading'. Only 5 per cent of parents read with their children, as a result, many children…

Bookreading is known to benefit young children's language and literacy development. However, research has demonstrated that how adults interact around a book with a child is probably even more important than reading the complete text. Dialogic or interactive reading strategies can promote children's language development more specifically. Little…

This study investigated the influence of book genre (narrative or didactic) on mothers' language use during a book sharing interaction with their 18- to 25-month-olds. Mother-child dyads were videotaped sharing both a narrative and a didactic book, adapted from two commercially available books, and matched in terms of length, quantity of text, and…

Discussions that occur during book reading between parents and preschool children relate to children's language development, especially discussions during picture books that include extended discourse, a form of abstract language. While a recent report shows increased chapter book reading among families with preschool children, it is unknown…

Objective: Children with AD/HD exhibit two disparate areas of difficulty: disrupted interactions with parents and significant problems in story comprehension. This study links these two difficulties by examining parent-child joint picture-book reading to determine whether there were diagnostic group differences in parent and child storytelling.…