Parent-child interaction in storybook contexts: A study of socially constructed communication with preschool children with disabilities.

摘要

Several issues contributed to research: First was a paradigm shift, and the emergence of early literacy as a legitimate area of children's early development. Researchers who studied what happens before children learn to read and write conventionally, looked to the social interactions that surround early literacy as the locus of early literacy learning. Concurrently, researchers in early language were looking to social interactions as the locus of children's early communication development.;The purpose of the present study was to investigate the collaborative potential of early literacy and early communication learning. The study investigated the participation of preschool children and adults in storybook interactions in terms of their interactive and communicative participation, and the relative effectiveness of children's and adults' roles. The study also developed an assessment scale (ECO Lit) for literacy and communication.;The study focused on the communicative partnerships of children and adults. The population consisted of preschool children with language delays, the majority of whom had diagnoses of developmental delay, and the children's parent, and the researcher.;Data were collected via home videotapes of adults and children engaged in storybook interactions with novel storybooks for 15-30 minute interaction samples. Parents were also interviewed concerning their beliefs, perceptions, and practices concerning early communication and literacy.;Findings from the child ECO Lit suggested that children were at the lower end of communication development in their storybook interactions with their mothers, and scored relatively higher in interactions with the researcher. The results of the adult ECO Lit indicated that parents generally did not exhibit interactive performance that facilitated children's interaction and communication. In general, children were more interactive and communicative during the storybook context with the researcher who used a developmentally appropriate, social constructive model during the interactions. Additional findings yielded a taxonomy of adult and child roles demonstrated during the storybook interactions.;Conclusions suggested that early language and literacy may be considered collaborative and reciprocal in nature. Additionally, a finely-tuned adult model of interaction appeared to facilitate children's active interaction and communication. The study suggests a new approach to the assessment of literacy and communication together.