Joint Book-Reading Strategies in Working-Class African American and White Mother-Toddler Dyads

Abstract

Twenty working-class mother-toddler dyads were videorecorded during three joint book-reading activities. Ten of the dyads were white, and 10 were African American, balanced for parent educational level, family income, and parental occupation. The children ranged in age from 18 to 30 months and were normally developing. The parents read an experimental book to their child two times and a favorite book they brought from home one time. Videotapes of the joint book-readings were analyzed to determine cultural differences and the effects of book familiarity on the occurrence of maternal and child communication behaviors. The results show many similarities between the cultural groups in joint book-reading behaviors. However, statistical analyses revealed a significant difference between the cultural groups in the use of questions. African American mothers used significantly fewer questioning behaviors compared to the white mothers. White children produced more question-related communications, and African American children produced more spontaneous verbalizations. Several effects of familiarity were also found. The findings are compared to anthropological reports on caretaker-child interaction in African American families and implications are discussed.

Joint Book Reading across Cultures: A Comparison of Surinamese-Dutch, Turkish-Dutch, and Dutch Parent-Child Dyads

“…We also found that, when for parents literacy does not serve important personal needs, parents and children are less involved in meaning-related discussions that may make the book more understandable and enjoyable for young children. These parents do not initiate themes that go beyond the text, and they do not discuss how text relates to pictures to the same extent as other parents (Anderson-Yockel & Haynes, 1994;De Temple & Snow, 1996;Heath, 1983). They are also less inclined to change text in order to make it easier to comprehend.…”

“…Heath's (1983) ethnographic work has indeed suggested that IOW-SES African American caregivers do not use questions as much as IOW-SES White mothers. Using a quantitative methodology, subsequent studies (e.g., Anderson-Yockel & Haynes, 1994;Neuman, 1996) have shown that lowproficiency parent readers and their children were more likely to engage in book-focused interactions, compared with the interactions of more proficient parent readers who display more meaning-based interaction strategies. De Temple and Snow (1996) coded to what extent maternal utterances moved away from what could be seen on the page, including spontaneous connections to the child's own world.…”

“…When parents are less inclined to initiate discussions, children produce more spontaneous verbalizations, probably because merely reading the words of a text aloud is not sufficient to make the story comprehensible for inexperienced readers (e.g., Anderson-Yockel & Haynes, 1994). Child-initiated discussions are highly valued (e.g., Kaderavek & Sulzby, 1998;Pellegrini, Perlmutter, Galda, & Brody, 1990).…”

Reducing Test Bias Through Dynamic Assessment of Children's Word Learning Ability

“…Similarly, Heath (1983) noted that, among African-Americans in the rural South, adults rarely elicited single-word nouns from preschool children, but they frequently sought comparisons, explanations, nonverbal responses, and information responses (in this order). Anderson-Yockel and Haynes (1994) reported that working-class African American mothers rarely asked questions, and their children produced more spontaneous verbalizations. Thus, a test task that requires naming single-word labels in response to adult questions may instead elicit longer responses such as explanations or descriptions.…”

Effects of A Picture Book Reading Intervention Program on Young Children's Language Development and Print Concept

“…They seldom possessed picture books that were suitable for the ages of their children. Moreover, they perceived language as a unilateral way of conveying information in their communication with their children (Anderson-Yockel & Haynes, 1994). In addition, when they read picture books to their children, they seemed to give their children one-way explanations or simple answers when children asked questions .…”