A Psychogenetic Perspective on Children's Understanding about Letter Associations during Alphabet Book Readings

Abstract

This study examined two preschoolers' understandings about letter associations during repeated alphabet book read alouds with their parents from a Piagetian perspective. Data for the present investigation was excerpted from a larger study in which six preschoolers, ages 3 1/2 to 4 1/2, read seven picture storybooks and two alphabet books three times each in a multiple baseline design over approximately a 30-day period. Applying the principles of Piaget's clinical or inquiry method, a qualitative analysis of the two children's responses to their parents' prompts or use of the formulaic phrase “—– is for —–” showed that neither one associated representative letters with the beginning sounds of names or other appropriate words. Letters were either associated indiscriminately with objects in the pictures or with words in the oral dialogue, irrespective of their beginning sounds. A psychogenetic theory of alphabet book reading is postulated where children first associate letters with any pictured object, then with selected words in the oral text, and only later with initial sound segments. Implications for research and practice regarding the slow evolution of metalinguistic differentiation at the phoneme level and the influence of genre on parent-child discourse are offered.

Eye movements in shared book reading with children from kindergarten to Grade 4

“…These studies have shown that children rarely comment on or ask questions about the letters, words, or lines of print, leading to the conclusion that children do not seem to pay attention to the text while being read to (Phillips & McNaughton, 1990;Shapiro, Anderson, & Anderson, 1997;Yaden & McGee, 1984;Yaden, Smolkin, & MacGillivray, 1993). Rather, children's questions and comments concerning the books were more related to the illustrations than to the text.…”

“…Rather, children's questions and comments concerning the books were more related to the illustrations than to the text. For example, Yaden, Smolkin, and Conlon (1989) as well as Yaden et al (1993) found that no more than 10% of the questions asked by children ages three to six during shared book reading concerned print conventions and forms. In addition it is the case that parents rarely comment on or draw attention to the print, although they can be trained to do so with resultant gains in children's print awareness (Justice & Ezell, 2002).…”

Families’ Selection of Children’s Literature Books

“…Their selection of stories to read encouraged family-child interactions through reading and follow up experiences. Studies (e.g., Morrow 1990;Saracho 1987;Yaden et al 1993) indicated that reading to children cultivate literacy for them in numerous modes. Reading the identical story to children several times helps children to gain an understanding of the purposes of print, of how print is used, and of the people's reading behaviors (Morrow 1990;Yaden et al 1993;Smith 1978).…”

Maternal mediation in book reading, home literacy environment, and children’s emergent literacy: a comparison between two social groups

“…It has been suggested that storybooks may be a good source for language development in terms of vocabulary and syntax, but this was not found to be the case regarding word recognition (Stahl, 2003). It has also been noted that neither parents nor teachers generally emphasize print while reading to children (Dickinson & Tabors, 1991), and that children, too, do not focus on print when looking at alphabet books (Yaden, Smolkin, & MacGillivray, 1993).…”