Read-alouds of picturebook biographies offer children engaging windows into the lives and work of famous (and sometimes not-so-famous) mathematicians to observe and discuss their ways of learning and doing mathematics--their mathematical practices. The Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs), although generally embodied in the work of…

The paper presents the design of an assistive reading tool that integrates read-aloud technology with eye tracking to regulate the speed of reading and support struggling readers in following the text while listening to it. The paper describes the design rationale of this approach, following the theory of auditory-visual integration, in terms of…

Texts are an often-ignored element in studies of interactive read-alouds in early childhood settings. In this article, the author addresses this research gap by examining 60 preschool books for the vocabulary affordances they provide for young children. There were five types of books in the study: narrative, informational, interactive, alphabet,…

Understanding how to successfully train storytime providers is crucial to the goal of offering high-quality early literacy programs in public library settings. As part of a larger study, nine early-career public library storytime providers were interviewed to learn what contextual factors are important to improve their knowledge, practice, and…

Supportive parent-child interactions are critical for facilitating typically developing children's language and social skill development. For children who are late-to-talk, parent-child interactions may be particularly important to address as a means of supporting growth in children's early language abilities. Target Word is one parent-implemented…

This study explores the relationship between the Hanzi recognition performance and the home literacy environments of 351 children aged 3 to 6 based on Montessori's philosophy of education. This study used 200 frequently spoken words in Montessori classrooms as the word set of a Hanzi recognition test, based on which studies at six Montessori…

Purpose: Laboratory-based word learning research demonstrates that retrieval-based practice supports learning and retention more than passive training strategies. The goal of the current study was to determine whether incorporating retrieval-based practice into an interactive book reading intervention contributed to better learning and retention…

Background: The current study examined whether the home literacy environment (HLE) has the same meaning and predictive value for children with and without speech and/or language impairment. Methods: Parents reported on their HLE for children with typical development (n = 811) and those with speech and/or language impairment (S/LI, n = 235). All…

The home environment typically offers the first setting for literacy development. However, inherent Down Syndrome (DS) phenotype characteristics, individual attributes, or caregiver influences can impact literacy growth. This study investigates the Home Literacy Environment (HLE) of children and adolescents with DS compared to their typically…

This qualitative case study explored how pre-service teachers responded to social justice-themed picture book read-alouds in an undergraduate literacy course. Data were collected from personal observations, semi-structured focus group interviews, and student work, and were analyzed using inductive analysis. Findings indicate how reading…

Shared book reading is a well-established vehicle for promoting child language and early development. Yet, existing shared reading interventions have primarily included only children age 3 years and older and high quality dialogic strategies have been less systematically applied for infants and toddlers. To address this gap, we have developed a…

This study explored how two emergent bilinguals (EBs) from refugee families made inferences with more and less culturally relevant texts. The study took place in a third-grade pull-out small group class in a Midwestern U.S. city. Data included video-recordings and transcripts of all 12 read-aloud discussion lessons of four books, interviews with…

For decades, K-12 teachers across the United States have read aloud to their students, whether it be to model fluent reading, to promote vocabulary acquisition, or out of pure enjoyment. As social justice becomes a more prevalent topic in classrooms across the country, interactive read-alouds are being used to introduce and discuss complex and…

Solid knowledge of vocabulary and sensitivity to words' morphological structure not only facilitates children's ability to learn and comprehend new words in speech, but it can also be used and transferred to more distal language abilities such as narrative, an important part of children's academic success. Nonetheless, relatively little research…

Purpose: Shared reading provides preschool-age children with the opportunity to learn novel, low-frequency words. Abundant empirical evidence demonstrates that children can learn the meanings of such words during shared reading, referred to as "semantic learning." However, less is known about whether children learn the spellings of words…