Nudge theory, a strategy to influence decision-making, holds promise for enhancing an adult's use of evidence-based strategies during a read-aloud experience with a young child. This study examined the effectiveness of a nudge theory approach in increasing adult gesture use during a book-reading activity with a young child. Notably, 31 U.S.…

Speech development occurs in highly variable environments; however, little is known about the effect of situational context on emerging infant vocalizations. At 4 time points (4, 6, 9, and 12 months), we longitudinally measured vocalizations of 104 White infant-caregiver dyads (41 girls) during three play contexts: book-sharing, toy play, and…

Background: Shared reading is an important opportunity for parents and children to connect and learn, which can support later independent reading skills. Much of the research to date has examined shared reading as parents read physical print books with their children. This research has demonstrated that parents tend to engage in more activities…

The practice of reading aloud to children is ubiquitous in early childhood classrooms. Teachers read aloud to young children to entertain, to build early literacy skills, to develop domain specific content knowledge and vocabulary, to promote social and emotional development and well-being, and to draw children into community with each other and…

Children's literature, including picture books, can be appropriate for any age level and can help students understand complex concepts, such as music. It can also engage students in music learning. Students garner a deeper comprehension of both the text and music when bringing children's literature to life, and reading aloud enhances students'…

One of the most important benefits of read alouds in the early years is the exposure children gain to new words. Although many early skills support later reading success, early vocabulary knowledge improves reading in several ways, including supporting comprehension of words that children decode; helping children recognize words more quickly;…

The present study aimed to examine the effects of the Quality Book Reading (NIKO) Early Intervention Program on Turkish mothers of children with Down syndrome aged between 2 and 6 years and their children. The research was conducted using the convergent parallel mixed design with 17 mother-child dyads determined by random assignment. Nine…

A large extant research base documents the positive effects shared book reading (SBR) can have on children's language development, reading comprehension, and other reading-related outcomes. Most studies examined the effects of researcher directed SBR, with an assortment of components that go beyond simply reading the text. It is possible, however,…

Background: Evidence supports the effectiveness of shared book reading for promoting language and literacy development, but it is known that families experiencing vulnerability may have reduced access to books and are less likely to share books regularly at home. Community hubs often provide support to families experiencing vulnerability and may…

Early literacy skills such as print knowledge are essential building blocks for children's later reading and academic outcomes. Shared book reading activities in early childhood classrooms offer rich opportunities through which educators can support children's print knowledge development by explicitly referring to a book's print. Such references…

Many elementary teachers shy away from using expository literature for interactive read-alouds in their classrooms, preferring and privileging narrative texts over this type of nonfiction. This article first shares the complementary benefits of moving beyond fiction and narrative nonfiction in educators' read-aloud practices. Affordances include…

This study explores book talks as an approach to teaching Nature of Science (NOS) to young children (4-6 years old). To teach about NOS means to, in one way or another, focus on the processes, humans that build science knowledge, as well as the characteristics and limits of scientific knowledge. Previous research in this area has studied the…

We report an evaluation of a book gifting scheme (the Dolly Parton Imagination Library; DPIL) that targeted families from disadvantaged areas. We considered the impact that length of participation had on children's interest in literacy-related activities, the frequency of parent-child reading interactions, duration of reading, and whether the…

Multiple racial issues in America have been brought to the forefront by the recent deaths of African Americans, yet many teachers feel unprepared to engage with students around issues of race. Their discomfort is likely because traditional textbooks omitted the experiences of non-dominant, marginalized groups, thereby denying readers an…

Early childhood classrooms provide an environment where children have many of their first social experiences, especially with others of diverse backgrounds. Studies of racial and ethnic concept development have primarily been experimental and highly prompted; little is known about racialized learning experiences during typical interactions in…