Parent-Child Reading Interactions: A Study of Preschoolers with Language Impairment

The goal of this research project was to better understand mothers’ use of effective shared reading strategies when reading storybooks with their children with language impairment (LI). I hypothesized that the frequency with which mothers incorporated positive interaction strategies into their book-reading sessions would be associated with higher performance on children’s developmental assessments. In this study, I address two aims of focus. Aim one is to characterize maternal behaviors when reading storybooks with their children diagnosed with LI. Aim two is to study the relations among maternal reading behaviors, child characteristics, and maternal characteristics. The sample used in this study consists of 55 mother-child dyads. The children were all between 4 and 5 years of age and were identified as having LI based on standardized assessment data. A 1.5 hour assessment session was conducted in each dyad’s home. Study data included standardized child language and literacy assessments, home literacy and demographic questionnaires, and a videotaped shared storybook reading observation. The reading was videotaped in its entirety and later coded using the Systematic Assessment of Book Reading (SABR) to capture maternal reading behaviors. Unfortunately, descriptive analyses indicate considerable variability between maternal storybook reading behaviors and child characteristics, nor were there any significant relationships between mother reading practices and her education level. Findings suggest that mother reading practices are idiosyncratic and are not tied to their children’s skills or age.The College of Arts and SciencesThe College of Social and Behavioral SciencesThe U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, Grant R305G050057The National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, Grant DC04933No embarg