Stories are one critical aspect of literacy across the life span. For young children, stories invite engagement in shared thinking, and social and emotional connections with others in family homes and early childhood education settings. In this article, we share key findings from two studies that illustrate ways that story interactions are…

While debate on declines in children's literacy is ongoing in Aotearoa New Zealand, very little attention in research and policy is paid to reading enjoyment and its capacity to support the reading development of children. Developed alongside a series of studies on children's reading for pleasure this article makes a theoretically informed…

Teachers who read for pleasure can enable their students to become readers as they consciously and unconsciously model the knowledge, practices, values, beliefs, and language (that is, the discourses) associated with being a reader. Such teachers are in the unique position of being able to talk with students about what they are currently reading,…

This paper reports on findings from a study that explored the efficacy of a home-based literacy intervention in advancing preschool children's foundational literacy skills. A secondary line of enquiry in the study sought to determine the effects of the intervention on the family literacy practices, in particular, the way in which families engaged…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature and understanding of online talk in a New Zealand primary-school context. This research consisted of a small-scale case study of the #NZReadaloud, a pre-existing literacy programme, over 6 weeks in mid-2020. A private online group on the education platform Edmodo was established where 14…

This study investigated the impact of an emergent literacy intervention on the language quality and quantity used during shared reading interactions of 14 teenage mothers (M = 19;9, SD = 1;3) and their young children (M = 2;1, SD = 0;8). Mothers participated in a seven-week emergent literacy intervention focused on a range of behaviours they could…

This study aimed to examine which genres parents are reading to children and for themselves. Furthermore, it aimed to examine mothers' and fathers' shared reading strategies for different book genres in relation to children's language and literacy development. Parents shared a narrative and an expository book with their preschool-aged children.…

Teachers are influential in motivating and improving attitudes towards reading. This article reports on an investigation of eight teachers of 10- to 12-year-old students from five New Zealand schools and the strategies they used to improve attitudes to reading. Each school had been identified as implementing effective reading programmes by a panel…

Investigates the extent that reading aloud to children in the classroom aids them in acquiring new vocabulary. Finds that oral story reading constitutes a significant source of vocabulary acquisition, whether or not the reading is accompanied by teacher explanation of word meanings. (RS)

Previous studies have shown that phonological awareness correlates with children's reading aloud and also adults' literacy experience. More recent research has further suggested that phonological awareness is associated with the processing of spoken language, which is a correlate of reading comprehension. In this paper, I argue that phonological…

Reports findings from 2 studies investigating the social practice of book reading in the homes of 10 mainstream New Zealand families. Finds that with unfamiliar storybooks both adults and children aged 3 and 4 initiated insertions most often focused on the meaning of the immediate text rather than on print or illustrations. (KEH)

Five Cambodian mothers (whose primary grade children attended a regular New Zealand school) were introduced to a Shared Reading procedure to help them learn to read, in parallel with their children. All children showed increased reading progress, as did three of the mothers. (Author/CB)