Talk During Book Sharing Between Parents and Preschool Children: A Comparison Between Storybook and Expository Book Conditions

The purpose of the current study was to explore parent and child extratextual utterances during storybook and expository book sharing. Sixty-two parents and their 3- to 4-year-old children from middle income families participated in the study. Dyads were videotaped on 2 occasions reading unfamiliar storybooks and expository books. Parent and child extratextual utterances were coded for their content, and parent utterances were coded for their utterance length and diversity of vocabulary. Content coding categories included feedback and acknowledgment, talk about print and book conventions, and talk about the book that was at lower levels of cognitive demand (Levels 1 and 2) and higher levels of cognitive demand (Levels 3 and 4). Within-subjects comparisons across the 2 genres revealed that parents were more likely to read the entire text during storybook sharing than they were during expository book sharing. Expository book sharing was longer in duration and resulted in higher rates of extratextual utterances by both parents and children. During expository book sharing, parents used significantly higher rates of feedback utterances and utterances at Levels 1, 3, and 4; children used significantly higher rates of feedback utterances and utterances at Levels 3 and 4. The mean length of parent extratextual utterances was significantly longer in the expository book condition, and their talk contained significantly greater vocabulary diversity. These findings indicate that the genre of book can influence the amount of talk that takes place during book sharing, and it can alter the content, vocabulary diversity, and sentence length of extratextual utterances.