Joint Reading between Black Head Start Children and Their Mothers

Abstract

This study examined the behaviors of black Head Start children and their mothers around a series of experimental joint reading contexts in their homes. There were 2 specific objectives: (1) to examine the effects of text genre (narrative and expository) and text format (familiar and traditional) on mothers' teaching strategies while interacting with their children around reading tasks, and (2) to examine the effectiveness of mothers' teaching strategies in eliciting children's participation in the joint reading tasks. 13 mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes while interacting around a series of texts in each genre and format. Results indicated that genre, not format, affected mothers' teaching strategies. Further, mothers adjusted their level of teaching to children's level of task competence. Results are discussed in terms of Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development.

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

“…Although the HSES mothers showed a non-significant tendency to engage in this type of discourse at a somewhat higher rate (50%), the LSES mothersÕ results are impressive when compared to what has previously been reported in research with LSES mothers: 12% by De Temple and Snow (1996) and about 10% by Pellegrini, Perlmutter, Galda, and Brody (1990). Perhaps the differences in these studiesÕ results could be explained by the different ages of the children who participated.…”

Early literacy interventions: The relative roles of storybook reading, alphabetic activities, and their combination

“…Session duration, books' length and complexity, accessibility to a variety of alphabetic materials, and so on were all geared to accommodate children's attention span, abilities, and preferences. The importance of sensitivity and adjustment to children's level of development has been demonstrated abundantly in the literature, in studies both on language acquisition (Reese, 1995) and on storybook reading (Pellegrini, Perlmutter, Galda, & Brody, 1990).…”

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

“…To better understand how any differences in reading behavior emerge, we also studied the dynamics of the scaffold by investigating which participants initiated or continued particular themes of discussion. Individual differences are embedded in sequences of other utterances, and it is only through analyses of interactive sequences that we can begin to understand organized social units such as book reading (Pellegrini et al, 1990). Another aim of the present study is to test the hypothesis that culturally specific child-rearing patterns explain differences in book reading.…”

“…Child-initiated discussions are highly valued (e.g., Kaderavek & Sulzby, 1998;Pellegrini, Perlmutter, Galda, & Brody, 1990). We wonder, however, to which extent discussions initiated by inexperienced children may reveal meaning-based interaction strategies necessary for bridging the relations between the text and children's own experiences.…”