The quality of mother-child shared reading: its relations to child's storytelling and home literacy environment

• Published in: Early child development and care Vol. 189; no. 7; pp. 1135 - 1146
• Main Authors: Marjanovič-Umek, Ljubica, Hacin, Kaja, Fekonja, Urška
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Routledge 07.06.2019; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Age Differences; Children & youth; Childrens Literature; Coherence; Family Environment; Family Literacy; Foreign Countries; Literacy; Mothers; Parent Child Relationship; Preschool Children; Quality; Quality of shared reading; Reading; Shared reading; Story Reading; Story Telling; Storytelling; Slovenia
• ISSN: 0300-4430; 1476-8275
• DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2017.1369975

In the present study, we analysed the relations among the quality of mother-child shared reading, child's storytelling and family literacy environment. The sample included 20 mother-child dyads, with 5-year-old children, who were recorded during shared reading. The quality of shared reading was assessed with the Scale for Observing Shared Reading while children's storytelling was assessed with the textless book Frog Goes to Dinner. We found that the quality of mother-child shared reading was related to the coherence of children's stories and to the factors of home literacy environment. Child's age when parents started reading to him, the number of all books and children's books in child's home together explained 43.1% of the variance in the quality of shared reading. The findings give an insight into the process of the quality of the interactive reading between a child and an adult and emphasize the importance of shared reading for child's storytelling.