For children to become strong readers, they need to learn a huge number of words--at least 100,000 by the time they get to eighth grade. It is impossible to teach that much vocabulary directly; children gain most of their vocabulary indirectly, as their knowledge of the world expands. This article discusses how much of this learning happens…

Parents are encouraged to read to their children as early as possible. Multiple studies of parent-child shared book reading with children ages 3 years and older have shown positive outcomes on parent use of language-based strategies and child language development. However, few studies have included children under the age of 3; thus, little is…

Research Findings: In this study, we examined the short- and long-term effects of Reading Express, a home-visiting intervention in which volunteers encourage low socio-economic status and ethnic minority parents to engage in interactive shared reading with their child. Outcomes of a quasi-experiment involving 176 children in the Netherlands (mean…

The purpose of this pilot study was to measure the effects of experiential learning on graduate students' use of facilitative language techniques (FLTs) to support language development in young children from a high poverty population. Seven CSD graduate students who participated in a language seminar received direct instruction in and experiential…

The practice of shared book reading is a nurturing support for early language, literacy, and socio-emotional development within young children's typical care. However, the closures of childcare, early education programs, and centers for family activities in the Spring of 2020 due to COVID-19 brought many sudden changes to the everyday lives of…

The study examined aspects of parent-child shared reading interactions of two Hebrew alphabet books, children's motivation to engage in early literacy activities, and how these variables relate to children's early literacy skills. Participants were 44 children (32 girls, 12 boys) aged 4.6 to 6.6 years (M = 5.6, SD = 0.54) and one parent (42…

In the current study, we describe a study of the Internet-based Parent-implemented Communication Strategies-Storybook (i-PiCSS). I-PiCSS is an intervention program designed to train and coach parents to use evidence-based naturalistic communication teaching (NCT) strategies (i.e., modeling, mand-model, and time delay) and reading techniques while…

Young children increasingly encounter digital media on a daily basis (Rideout, 2013). While e-books have been shown to positively influence emergent literacy skills (Neuman & Neuman, 2014; Shamir & Korat, 2015; Takacs, Swart, & Bus, 2015), the connection between specific e-book affordances and emergent literacy skills is muddy…

Dialogic reading, in which parents engage children in discussion of books, is associated with long-term literacy success. Social media is an emerging platform for promoting behavioral change, but it has yet to be tested as a platform for engaging parents in use of dialogic reading strategies with their young children. This exploratory study was…

This study provided workshops for parents on either early literacy or socio-emotional learning to examine the impact on their children's reading and social skills development (n = 576 parents; n = 584 children). Parents of kindergartners were offered interactive workshops designed to help them identify everyday opportunities to support reading…

While much is known about the benefits of shared reading activity for children, and the role of the home in cultivating shared reading practices far less is known about the factors that can influence parents' shared reading practices with their children. Given that many young people leave school with poor relationships with reading, this study…

Academic language includes three skills: (1) use of inferential language (communicating about ideas across contexts); (2) use of narrative language (clearly describing a series of events); and (3) understanding a range of academic vocabulary and grammatical structures. These skills help students better comprehend academic texts both across…

With the increasing attention to the role of parents in children's learning, what issues parents consider and how they behave when learning with their children when confronted with the emerging augmented reality (AR) technology may be worth exploring. This study was therefore conducted to qualitatively understand parents' conceptions of AR…

Recent efforts to motivate parents' involvement in their child's literacy development involve informing parents about how to incorporate literacy development into daily routines. Teacher leadership and communication are critical--the more teachers encourage and assist parents and caregivers in supporting their child's literacy development, the…

Research Findings: We present 3 studies that focused on preschoolers' electronic book (e-book) reading in different contexts aimed at supporting children's early literacy. In Study 1 we researched the impact of children's age and number of independent readings on phonological awareness and word reading. We found that all age groups benefited from…