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Parent-child interaction during storybook reading: wordless narrative books versus books with text

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2021

Abigail PETRIE ,
Robert MAYR ,
Fei ZHAO  and
Simona MONTANARI
Abigail PETRIE
Affiliation:
Centre for Speech and Language Therapy and Hearing Science, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
Robert MAYR
Affiliation:
Centre for Speech and Language Therapy and Hearing Science, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
Fei ZHAO
Affiliation:
Centre for Speech and Language Therapy and Hearing Science, Cardiff Metropolitan University, UK
Simona MONTANARI*
Affiliation:
Department of Child & Family Studies, California State University, Los Angeles, USA
*
Corresponding author. Simona Montanari, Ph.D. Child & Family Studies California State University, Los Angeles 5151 State University Dr. Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA. E-mail: smontan2@exchange.calstatela.edu
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Abstract

This study examines the content and function of parent-child talk while engaging in shared storybook reading with two narrative books: a wordless book versus a book with text. Thirty-six parents audio-recorded themselves reading one of the books at home with their 3.5–5.5-year-old children. Pragmatic and linguistic measures of parental and child talk during both narrative storytelling and dialogic interactions were compared between the wordless and book-with-text conditions. The results show that the wordless book engendered more interaction than the book-with-text, with a higher rate of parental prompts and responsive feedback, and significantly more child contributions, although lexical diversity and grammatical complexity of parental language were higher during narration using a book-with-text. The findings contribute to research on shared storybook reading suggesting that different book formats can promote qualitatively different language learning environments.

Type
Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 2023 , pp. 104 - 131
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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