The Effects of Incorporating Interactive Questioning During Shared Electronic Book Reading on Preschoolers\u27 Comprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine the potential effects of parental interactive questioning during shared electronic book reading on preschoolers\u27 comprehension outcomes and secondly to assess the effects of parent training on post-intervention parental interactive behaviors during shared electronic book reading. Four parent-child dyads participated in this seven week multiple baseline study. Participants were recruited from a suburban preschool in southeastern Virginia and child participants\u27 ages ranged from 48 to 68 months ( M = 55.75). Pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments evaluated the child participants\u27 comprehension skills and the parent-child dyad\u27s interactive behaviors during shared electronic book reading. Child participants\u27 story understanding was measured by comprehension questions and elicited story retellings and tracked through baseline, intervention, and maintenance phases. While all child participants showed gains in comprehension skills and parents increased interactive questioning skills, results showed that the level of intervention effectiveness differed among the participants across measures. This study contributed to the emerging literature base focusing on the effects of parental support during shared electronic book reading on literacy skill development. Findings suggest that training parents and teachers to scaffold comprehension skills during electronic reading may provide added benefits for comprehension skill development