Influence of verbal and nonverbal references to print on preschoolers' visual attention to print during storybook reading.

Abstract

How much do preschool children look at print within storybooks when adults read to them? This study sought to answer this question as well as to examine the effects of adult verbal and nonverbal references to print on children's visual attention to print during storybook reading. Forty-four preschool-aged children participated in this study designed to determine the amount of visual attention children paid to print in 4 planned variations of storybook reading. Children's visual attention to print was examined when adults commented and questioned about print (verbal print condition) or pointed to and tracked the print (nonverbal print condition), relative to 2 comparison conditions (verbatim reading and verbal picture conditions). Results showed that children rarely look at print, with about 5%-6% of their fixations allocated to print in verbatim and verbal picture reading conditions. However, preschoolers' visual attention to print increases significantly when adults verbally and nonverbally reference print; both reading styles exerted similar effects. The authors conclude that explicit referencing of print is 1 way to increase young children's contacts with print during shared storybook reading.

Reading electronic and printed books with and without adult instruction: effects on emergent reading

“…This activity took place repeatedly with the adult and the child with cards. The instruction emphasized the promotion of emergent reading following studies that indicate that discussion of print concept and emergent literacy aspects in shared book reading promote children's literacy skills (Bus & van IJzendoorn, 1988;Justice & Ezell, 2000;Justice, Pullen, & Pence, 2008;. The activities with the adult after the reading of the books were conducted with reference to the books that the children read before and the instruction that was given by the adult during the reading.…”

Designing Caregiver-Implemented Shared-Reading Interventions to Overcome Implementation Barriers

“…Investigations of caregiver-child interactions during print-focused read-alouds have shown that the primary active ingredient of this intervention is the adult's explicit references to print, which in turn serve as a mechanism for directing children's visual and verbal attention toward specific, explicit information about print within the books being read (Evans & Saint-Aubin, 2005;Evans, Williamson, & Pursoo, 2008;Justice, Pullen, & Pence, 2008). Interventions featuring print-focused read-alouds "manualize" this active ingredient by specifying the number of adult explicit references to print to occur within a given reading session, corresponding to intervention dose, as well as the number of reading sessions to occur over time, corresponding to intervention frequency.…”

Los beneficios de la lectura compartida de libros: breve revisión

“…Es sabido que durante la lectura de cuentos los niños parecen prestar poca atención a lo escrito, de hecho, solo el 6% de sus fijaciones visuales se centran en lo impreso y solo durante el 4% del tiempo total de la lectura de un libro (Justice, Pullen y Pence, 2008). Por su parte, los adultos de forma natural rara vez hacen comentarios acerca del texto escrito, ni padres (Justice y Ezell, 2000), ni tampoco maestros, quienes, según un reciente estudio, realizan aproximadamente 10 referencias a lo impreso en una sesión de lectura ordinaria de 10 minutos (Zucker, Justice y Piasta, 2009).…”