The Impact of COVID-19 on Families’ Home Literacy Practices with Young Children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten Read ◽  
Grace Gaffney ◽  
Ashley Chen ◽  
Amina Imran

The practice of shared book reading is a nurturing support for early language, literacy and socio-emotional development within young children’s typical care. However, the closures of childcare and centers for family activities in the Spring of 2020 due to COVID-19 brought many sudden changes to care and the everyday lives of families with young children. In order to explore the impact of COVID-19 on shared reading, we surveyed parents of children between ages 2 and 5 (n = 85) about their children’s frequency of shared reading engagement in February and October, 2020 as well as the frequency of screen-mediated reading, the number of readers their children read with, and book preferences at both time points. Parents were also asked about changes in their children’s regular care and whether and how they had tried new kinds of (virtual) literacy activities during their increased time at home. Preliminary findings showed that there were no significant changes in frequency of shared reading from February to October, but there was a significant increase in frequency of screen-mediated reading, especially among families who lost outside-the-home childcare. There was also a significant decrease in the number of adults regularly reading with the children. Caregivers described adapting to virtual options for storytime. Ultimately, while families were still able to provide consistent amounts of shared reading with their children throughout COVID-19, the nature of that shared reading was changed. Future research will investigate whether these changes may have an impact on children’s typical learning from shared reading.

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-208
Author(s):  
Amanda K. Kibler ◽  
Judy Paulick ◽  
Natalia Palacios ◽  
Tatiana Hill

Through in-home ethnographic observations of three multilingual immigrant families’ shared book reading, we identified recurring literacy practices in the home in which mothers, older siblings, and younger children participated during the reading. We found that families engaged in context-sensitive and cooperative shared reading practices, wherein decoding tended to be the focus. This practice—which we call transcultural decoding—involved multidirectional language socialization practices and occurred across languages, and older family members contributed both expertise and restrictive conceptions of reading. This work suggests the importance of (a) acknowledging the major focus on decoding during shared reading in families, and reconceptualizing that work as complex and nuanced, particularly across languages and cultures, and (b) considering siblings as cultural and linguistic mediators in family literacy practices.


2018 ◽  
Vol 88 (5) ◽  
pp. 712-751 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Fitton ◽  
Autumn L. McIlraith ◽  
Carla L. Wood

The present meta-analysis was conducted to examine how shared book reading affects the English language and literacy skills of young children learning English as a second language. The final analysis included 54 studies of shared reading conducted in the United States. Features of the intervention and child characteristics were tested as potential moderators, and the impact of methodological criteria was examined using sensitivity analyses. Results revealed an overall significant, positive effect of shared reading on English learners’ outcomes. Children’s developmental status moderated this effect, with larger effect sizes found in studies including only typically developing participants than in studies including only participants with developmental disorders. No other significant moderators were identified. The main positive effect was robust to the application of more stringent methodological inclusion criteria. These results support shared book reading as an early educational activity for young English learners.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-193
Author(s):  
Kelley Nelson-Strouts ◽  
William Gillispie

The purpose of the present study is to investigate early literacy experiences for a single tribe of Native American (NA) students, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN). A survey was developed and distributed to primary caretakers of children that attend PBPN's early childhood center inquiring about the frequency they engage in certain early literacy practices and the cultural relevance of those practices. As mainstream early literacy often involves dialogic shared book reading and NA culture historically supports oral storytelling, questions about the significance of these practices were especially emphasized. Results suggest not only did most respondents report participating in both practices frequently with their children but also supported that characteristics of mainstream book reading were viewed as culturally appropriate. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophia R. D’Agostino ◽  
Ana D. Dueñas ◽  
Joshua B. Plavnick

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often delayed in acquiring social initiation skills utilized during common early childhood activities. A multiple probe design was utilized to assess the efficacy of a shared book reading intervention to increase the independent commenting of three young children with ASD. The intervention resulted in participant’s acquisition of social commenting in the form of independent pointing and verbal commenting to gain social attention from an adult. The results suggest that young children with ASD can independently initiate social interactions during shared book reading when these behaviors are systematically taught and reinforced. Implications for practice and directions for future research aimed toward generalization and improving the implementation of shared book reading interventions are discussed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Noble ◽  
Giovanni Sala ◽  
Michelle Peter ◽  
Jamie Lingwood ◽  
Caroline F Rowland ◽  
...  

Shared book reading is thought to have a positive impact on young children’s language development, with shared reading interventions often run in an attempt to boost children’s language skills. However, despite the volume of research in this area, a number of issues remain outstanding. The current meta-analysis explored whether shared reading interventions are equally effective (a) across a range of study designs; (b) across a range of different outcome variables; and (c) for children from different SES groups. It also explored the potentially moderating effects of intervention duration, child age, use of dialogic reading techniques, person delivering the intervention and mode of intervention delivery.Our results show that, while there is an effect of shared reading on language development, this effect is smaller than reported in previous meta-analyses (g ̅ = 0.215, p < .001). They also show that this effect is moderated by the type of control group used and is negligible in studies with active control groups (g ̅ = 0.021, p = .783). Finally, they show no significant effects of differences in outcome variable (ps ≥ .400), socio-economic status (p = .654), or any of our other potential moderators (ps ≥ .103), and non-significant effects for studies with follow-ups (g ̅ = 0.145, p = .070). On the basis of these results, we make a number of recommendations for researchers and educators about the design and implementation of future shared reading interventions.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosalind L Walsh ◽  
Kerry A Hodge

A review of 20 experimental, shared book reading (SBR) interventions using questioning strategies with preschool children was conducted. The studies were analyzed in terms of their quality, focus, and the questioning strategies employed. Although there were few methodological concerns about the studies conducted, treatment fidelity and replicability of the reported interventions are raised as issues needing attention in future research. The impact of questioning strategies on language and pre- literacy skills tended to be a focus of the reported studies, with little investigation of the development of children's thinking skills through questioning, and there were few attempts to analyze children's responses to different types of questioning techniques. Across the reported studies, there was also a lack of consistency around the terminology associated with different kinds of questioning. The article concludes with discussion of implications for the use of questioning techniques in early childhood education practice and argues for research into the impact of different questioning techniques on children's cognitive development.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (6) ◽  
pp. 1878-1897
Author(s):  
Claire Noble ◽  
Thea Cameron-Faulkner ◽  
Andrew Jessop ◽  
Anna Coates ◽  
Hannah Sawyer ◽  
...  

Purpose Research has indicated that interactive shared book reading can support a wide range of early language skills and that children who are read to regularly in the early years learn language faster, enter school with a larger vocabulary, and become more successful readers at school. Despite the large volume of research suggesting interactive shared reading is beneficial for language development, two fundamental issues remain outstanding: whether shared book reading interventions are equally effective (a) for children from all socioeconomic backgrounds and (b) for a range of language skills. Method To address these issues, we conducted a randomized controlled trial to investigate the effects of two 6-week interactive shared reading interventions on a range of language skills in children across the socioeconomic spectrum. One hundred and fifty children aged between 2;6 and 3;0 (years;months) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: a pause reading, a dialogic reading, or an active shared reading control condition. Results The findings indicated that the interventions were effective at changing caregiver reading behaviors. However, the interventions did not boost children's language skills over and above the effect of an active reading control condition. There were also no effects of socioeconomic status. Conclusion This randomized controlled trial showed that caregivers from all socioeconomic backgrounds successfully adopted an interactive shared reading style. However, while the interventions were effective at increasing caregivers' use of interactive shared book reading behaviors, this did not have a significant impact on the children's language skills. The findings are discussed in terms of practical implications and future research. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12420539


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