Picture book reading is an educational experience that occurs when children attend to the text in a book while simultaneously listening to its narration. Whether preschool children with hearing loss reliant on assistive devices behave similarly to hearing children during reading with a narrator remains unknown. Sixty preschool children aged from 3…

This study evaluates the effectiveness of a dialogic reading picture book intervention on preschoolers' repeating patterning ability. Ninety-four children age 4 years 1 month to 6 years 8 months (M[subscript age] = 5 years 0 months) were randomly assigned to intervention (n = 46) or active control (n = 48) conditions. Well-trained university and…

Research Findings: The home literacy environment and particularly shared reading are central determinants of children's emergent literacy skills and predictors of their later reading development. Although the importance of frequent shared reading is well established, there is little knowledge about the age at which reading to children starts…

Picture books inherently contain many parallel dimensions of information and serve as a rich source of input for children. However, studies of children's learning from picture books tend to focus on a single type of information (e.g., novel words). To better understand the learning-related potential of shared book reading, we examined 4.5- to…

The purpose of this pilot study was to explore whether exposing pre-readers to an unfamiliar event in a brief, play-based, session would enhance comprehension of a story based on that event. Twenty-four typically developing participants (9 males; 15 females), aged 30-51 months (M = 39.13, SD = 6.02) were randomly assigned to free-play and…

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk of persistent language and literacy difficulties. This study investigated the effectiveness of an 8-week parent-implemented shared book reading intervention designed to change parent and child book reading behaviours. Sixteen parents and their preschoolers on the autism…

Research Findings: Are family literacy activities linked to gains in preschool-aged dual language learners' (DLLs') societal language vocabulary? To understand connections between literacy activities and vocabulary, we separately considered literacy activities in the respective heritage language and in the societal language, German, and accounted…

In an effort to improve oral reading, beginning and remedial reading programs in English focus on phonological awareness skills and recoding with grapheme--phoneme correspondences. The meanings of the words children practice reading aloud are given little emphasis. Some studies now suggest semantic knowledge may have a direct effect on children's…

This experiment examined whether a partial read-aloud accommodation with pacing (PRAP) would improve the reading comprehension of poor decoders but not average decoders compared to standard testing procedures. Participants were 82 third graders with at least average listening comprehension skills: 28 were poor decoders, and 54 were average…

Research Findings: Children learn most of their vocabulary incidentally, by hearing words used in their environment. This study explored which kinds of presentations of words, without any direct instruction, yielded greater depth of target word knowledge. Changes in 56 kindergartners' depth of knowledge for each of 23 novel target words (N =…

This study examined the socio-demographic factors associated with trajectories of parental involvement in shared book reading and other home activities for children aged 2-6 years. The study uses data from 3836 families participating in "Growing up in Australia: The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children." Latent growth curve models…

This study examined variability of the home literacy environment (HLE) using multiple measures among families of low SES. The relations of the measures to each other and to children's early oral language skills and print knowledge were reported. Considerable variability of the self-reported HLE items and the Children's Title Checklist (CTC) but…

There is growing recognition of the need to end the debate regarding reading instruction in favor of an approach that provides a solid foundation in phonics and other underlying language skills to become expert readers. We advance this agenda by providing evidence of specific effects of instruction focused primarily on the written code or on…

Preschool teachers from a high-poverty, urban school district were trained to implement Story Talk, a book reading intervention designed to increase children's vocabulary and language development using supportive materials and strategic individualized coaching. Thirty-five teachers were randomly assigned by site to the intervention (20) or the…

Although an abundant literature documents preliterate children's word learning success from shared storybook reading, a full synthesis of the factors which moderate these word learning effects has been largely neglected. This meta-analysis included 38 studies with 2,455 children, reflecting 110 effect sizes, investigating how reading styles, story…