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Let's talk: Investigating adult-child interactions within the home-literacy environment to better support children's developing oral language and early-literacy skills
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Abstract:
Early successes in reading lead to further successes over time, whereas early struggles with reading limit future learning (Stanovich, 1986). Therefore, to help avert this achievement gap, the primary aim of this thesis was to investigate a variety of adult-child interactions in the home that help develop the precursors to independent reading: children’s oral language and early-literacy skills. Study one compared meaning- and code-focused talk in rhyming versus non-rhyming picturebooks in relation to children’s oral language and early-literacy skills. Forty-five parents were audio-recorded reading two picturebooks, one rhyming and one non-rhyming, with their preschool-aged children. Children’s concurrent oral language and early-literacy skills were also assessed. Parents made higher proportions of inference/predictions in the non-rhyming book, and higher proportions of print- and sound-focused talk in the rhyming book. Further, parents’ meaning-focused talk predicted children’s concurrent oral language skills, and parents’ code-focused talk (both print- and sound-focused) predicted children’s concurrent early-literacy skills. These associations differed by book style and were moderated by children’s age, such that parents’ print-focused talk in the rhyming book was positively associated with early-literacy skills only for older children. Study two investigated the comparative effects of two novel shared reading conditions and a non-shared reading control on parent-child extratextual talk, reminiscing, and children’s oral language and early-literacy development. Two of the conditions were preventive interventions, Rich Reading and Reminiscing (RRR; n = 24)) and Strengthening Sound Sensitivity (SSS; n = 23), and one was an Activity-Based Control (ABC; n = 24). Both preventive interventions included workshops on the benefits of interactive shared-reading and post-reading activities to further consolidate learning; however, they each targeted different oral-language and early-literacy skills. RRR targeted children’s vocabulary development and story comprehension through comments and questions about the storyline, new words, and character’s emotions during shared reading, as well as post-reading elaborative reminiscing based on themes within the books. Conversely, SSS targeted children’s phonological awareness through comments and questions about the sounds of words during shared reading, as well as post-reading singing and sound-play. To control for book-specific effects, families in both conditions received the same set of 12 picturebooks embedded with condition-specific prompts. Alternatively, families in the ABC condition received tip sheets and materials for developmentally-appropriate structured play. We invited participating families to complete two interaction activities at pre- and post-test: shared book-reading and reminiscing. We also assessed children’s vocabulary, story comprehension, phonological awareness, and alphabet knowledge at both time points. Overall, participation in RRR positively predicted parents’ total on-topic and meaning-focused talk during the post-test shared reading task, whereas participation in SSS positively predicted parents’ and childrens’ print- and sound-focused talk. Similarly, during the post-test reminiscing task, participation in RRR positively predicted parents’ total elaborations and confirmations. Finally, there were no statistically significant main effects of condition for children’s oral language and early-literacy skills. Instead, relations between condition and post-test letter naming fluency were moderated by child age, such that participation in either book-reading condition was associated with higher post-progam letter recognition for older preschool children. Study three extended study two, in that we investigated the comparative effects of RRR, SSS, and ABC on parents’ beliefs. We also invited families to evaluate the three conditions to assess social validity. Participating parents filled out questionnaires pre- and post-participation measuring their satisfaction, interest, and sense of self-efficacy in relation to parenting, as well as their literacy beliefs and situational-specific self-efficacy. Parents were also invited to rate their own and their child’s enjoyment of project activities, along with evaluative statements about participation. Overall, parents in all three conditions reported high levels of enjoyment for both themselves and their children. Parents in all three conditions also reported that that they: noticed their children developing new skills, felt more confident about helping their children get ready for school, felt that their children were better prepared, and would recommend their respective condition to other parents. Parents in the RRR and SSS conditions also reported developing new skills. However, condition did not contribute to the regression model for any post-test parent belief variables, over and above parent education and the applicable pre-test belief scores. Instead, there were statistically significant moderator effects as functions of parent education and percentage of project activities implemented across the six week period. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that: (a) rhyming picturebooks may elicit a higher proportion of code-focused talk, and non-rhyming picturebooks may elicit a higher proportion of meaning-focused talk; (b) print-focused talk may be more useful for older than for younger pre-schoolers; (c) both RRR and SSS may be effective and enjoyable preventive interventions for enhancing parents’ and children’s decontextualised talk during shared book-reading and reminiscing; and (d) home-based parent education programmes may have less of an immediate impact on parents’ reading beliefs and self-efficacy than previously thought.
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Keyword:
Book genre; Early literacy; Elaborative reminiscing; Home literacy environment; New Zealand; Oral language; Parent beliefs; Phonological awareness; Picturebooks; Preventive intervention; Rhyming book; Self efficacy; Shared reading; Story comprehension; Vocabulary
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URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10523/12156
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A Culturally Adapted Diabetes Prevention Intervention in the New York City Sikh Asian Indian Community Leads to Improvements in Health Behaviors and Outcomes
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In: Health Behavior Research (2019)
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Assessing Feasibility and Readiness to Address Obesity through Policy in American Indian Reservations
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In: Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice (2016)
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National Academy of Education underscored the role of caregivers in reading development: bThe single
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In: http://ilabs.washington.edu/meltzoff/pdf/05HuebnerMeltzoff_ADP.pdf
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