Public library storytimes provide rich learning opportunities for young children and their caregivers, yet little is known about how inclusive they are for children with disabilities and developmental delays (CwD/DD). The purpose of this study was to identify and describe ways that librarians support the inclusion of CwD/DD and their caregivers in…

This article uses the concept of literacy-as-event to explore the embodied meaning-making of a young child during small world play. Recent developments in literacy research, influenced by relational thinking, have led to a reconsideration of how meaning-making unfolds in home and school settings. The concept of literacy-as-event suggests that…

Background: Children with Down syndrome have speech and language difficulties that are disproportionate to their overall intellectual ability and relative strengths in the use of gesture. Shared book reading between parents and their children provides an effective context in which language development can be facilitated. However, children with…

If one walks into an elementary classroom full of children, and it is quiet, most likely it is storytime. The teacher sits at the front of the carpet with a large book, elaborate illustrations on each page, and a variety of characters displaying the story. The children sit crisscross, eyes glued to the book or their teacher as they act out each…

In a rapidly changing information landscape, science communicators need to find new ways to engage audiences, make their information memorable and increase attitudes towards scientists. Evidence suggests that stories could be an effective tool for these goals, but few studies tested experimentally whether they are advantageous to non-stories in…

This study distinguished the cognitive and affective components of advanced theory of mind (AToM) and their distinct contributions to narrative reading comprehension (NRC) across different grades. In a longitudinal study (Time 1: April 2023) involving 344 Chinese children from Grades 2-5 (174 girls, M[subscript age] = 9.60 years), results…

Fidget toys are recommended as "sensory" tools to improve the attention and performance of elementary students with autism. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how fidget toys affected the visual attention and skill acquisition of elementary students with autism during storybook reading. Provision of fidget toys was compared with a…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may struggle with verbal behavior related to recall in various contexts. However, relatively little research has evaluated methods for improving recall among this population, and even fewer from a verbal behavior perspective. One socially important set of skills that relies upon a behavioral repertoire…

Conversation circles in kindergartens can foster discursive abilities such as argumentation. This paper analyzes argumentation in conversation circles in a kindergarten with respect to the function of narrative argumentation. We focus on second stories as a specific narrative form that is characterized by relating in content and form to a before…

Racial literacy as defined by Stevenson (2014) is an important cultural resistance strategy (e.g., positive coping strategy) for Black children and youth because it gives them the skills needed to survive in a racist society. Stevenson's work, along with the work of several of his colleagues, focuses on adolescents and those in middle childhood,…

Purpose: This article evaluated the utilization of an Internet-based, self-managed parent training program (i.e., Success with Stories [SWS]) designed to facilitate parental motivation about interactive storybook reading, perceived competence in their ability to engage in interactive storybook reading, and their reading practices and beliefs.…

Studies of reconsolidation interference posit that reactivation of a previously consolidated memory via a reminder brings it into an active, labile state, leaving it open for potential manipulation. If interfered with, this may disrupt the original memory trace. While evidence for pharmacological reconsolidation interference is widespread, it…

Language, literacy, and social-emotional skills are important for successful participation in society. These skills develop through interaction with others and through explicit instruction. An important activity to contribute to the development of these skills in young children is shared storybook reading. For deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH)…

A robust finding in psycholinguistics is that prior language experience influences subsequent language processing. This phenomenon is known as syntactic priming. Most of the empirical support for L2 syntactic priming comes from lab-based experiments. However, this evidence might not reflect how priming occurs in typical language activities in the…

Reading a book aloud with an adult, or shared book reading (SBR), is a key aspect of children's early experiences with literacy and one that can vary based on social and cultural factors. Based on a sample of 30 Mexican and Dominican families from the New York metro area, the present study investigated book reading strategies used by parents of…