It is widely believed that reading to preschool children promotes their language and literacy skills. Yet, whether early parent-child book reading is an index of generally rich linguistic input or a unique predictor of later outcomes remains unclear. To address this question, we asked whether naturally occurring parent-child book reading interactions between 1 and 2.5 years-of-age predict elementary school language and literacy outcomes, controlling for the quantity of other talk parents provide their children, family socioeconomic status, and children's own early language skill. We find that the quantity of parent-child book reading interactions predicts children's later receptive vocabulary, reading comprehension, and internal motivation to read (but not decoding, external motivation to read, or math skill), controlling for these other factors. Importantly, we also find that parent language that occurs during book reading interactions is more sophisticated than parent language outside book reading interactions in terms of vocabulary diversity and syntactic complexity. K E Y W O R D Sbook reading, language, language input, literacy † This work was completed while at the University of Chicago.
Museums are located at the intersection of awe and learning: When guests arrive, they are expecting to be amazed, inspired, and educated. This is particularly true in science museums, and researchers have pointed to awe as an epistemic emotion that can promote science learning. We present two studies of awe in a science museum. The first study (n = 293) examined how aweconceptualized as a multifaceted construct associated with positive feelings of liberation/connection, negative feelings of oppression/isolation, chills, and diminished-self perceptions-differed across museum locations and in relation to prior knowledge. The second study (n = 708) expanded the investigation to also examine the relationship between awe and critical thinking. Across both studies, we found that, relative to baseline spaces, vast, beautiful spaces elicited positive awe-related emotions (amazement, curiosity) and stronger awe correlates (chills, diminished-self perceptions); vast, threatening spaces also elicited stronger amazement, chills, and diminished-self perceptions-but also stronger oppression/isolation. In both studies, pre-visit knowledge was associated with awe experiences during the visit. In Study 2, we also found evidence for relationships between awe and skepticism and aesthetic thought, two aspects of critical thinking: Positive aspects of awe (liberation/connection, curiosity) were associated with more skepticism, and negative aspects of awe (oppression/isolation, disorientation) with less skepticism. In terms of aesthetic thinking, diminished-self perceptions were associated being able describe observed roles and actions, and chills were associated with being able to describe personal opinions. These results support the assertion that awe can be used to encourage engagement and learning in informal science settings.
Prosody, he “music” of language, is an important aspect of all natural languages, spoken and signed. We ask here whether prosody is also robust across learning conditions. If a child were not exposed to a conventional language and had to construct his own communication system, would that system contain prosodic structure? We address this question by observing a deaf child who received no sign language input and whose hearing loss prevented him from acquiring spoken language. Despite his lack of a conventional language model, this child developed his own gestural system. In this system, features known to mark phrase and utterance boundaries in established sign languages were used to consistently mark the ends of utterances, but not to mark phrase or utterance internal boundaries. A single child can thus develop the seeds of a prosodic system, but full elaboration may require more time, more users, or even more generations to blossom.
Better understanding guests’ sense of belonging can explain why some feel quite at home in museums while others would never consider visiting. To do so, we start by developing a model of belonging uniquely suited for museums and cultural institutions. Based on literature and expert interviews, it includes three elements of belonging: Inclusion, Place Belongingness and Context of the visit. This study presents an easy‐to‐use survey instrument designed to measure all aspects of the model. It adapts two previously published scales while introducing the Cultural Context Belonging Scale, newly developed for these settings. We tested it with 333 guests leaving a science museum and present results of a confirmatory factor analysis and criterion validation. The former showed the new scale consisted of two factors based on concepts of community and agency. Overall, community belongingness showed the most significant difference among guests’ reported sense of overall belonging at the museum. Black or African American, Latinx and Asian guests thought of community more often related to their race and ethnic identity. In contrast, White guests thought of community in terms of a place or location.
Better understanding guests’ sense of belonging can explainwhy some feel quite at home in museums while others would never considervisiting. To do so, we start by developing a model of belonging uniquelysuited for museums and cultural institutions. Based on literature and expertinterviews, it includes three elements of belonging: Inclusion, PlaceBelongingness and Context of the visit. This study presents an easy-to-usesurvey instrument designed to measure all aspects of the model. It adaptstwo previously published scales while introducing the Cultural ContextBelonging Scale, newly developed for these settings. We tested it with 333guests leaving a science museum and present results of confirmatoryfactor analysis and criterion validation. The former showed the new scaleconsisted of two factors based on concepts of community and agency.Overall, community belongingness showed the most significant differenceamong guests’ reported sense of overall belonging at the museum. Black orAfrican American, Latinx and Asian guests thought of community moreoften related to their race and ethnic identity. In contrast, White gueststhought of community in terms of a place or location.
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