Mental state reasoning is an integral part of children's teaching and learning understanding. This study investigated whether a picture book reading approach focusing on mental state discourse and ...contrasting perspectives in a preschool classroom setting would improve children's teaching and learning understanding and school readiness. In total, 104 children from four classrooms aged between 46 and 64 months (53 girls, M = 54.03 months, SD = 3.68) participated in the study. Half of the classrooms were randomly assigned to an experimental group where teachers read picture books rich in mental state discourse and engaged in intensive discussions with children for eight weeks. Children's false belief understanding and teaching and learning understanding were measured before and after the eight-week period. The result revealed that picture book reading improved children's learning understanding with a medium effect size, controlling for demographic variables, children's verbal ability, inhibition, and initial false belief understanding. The experimental group children further demonstrated more advanced school readiness 18 months after the intervention ended in a follow-up study using a teacher questionnaire.
It is well documented that the language skills of preschool children differ substantially and that these differences are highly predictive of their later academic success and achievements. Especially ...in the early phases of children's lives, the importance of different structural and process characteristics of the home learning environment (HLE) has been emphasized and research results have documented that process characteristics such as the quality of parental interaction behavior and the frequency of joint activities vary according to the socio-economic status (SES) of the family. Further, both structural and process characteristics are associated with children's language development. As most of the studies focus on single indicators or didn't take the dynamics of parenting behavior across age into account, the present paper aims to investigate the associations of different characteristics of the home learning environment as well as their potentially changing impact on the language skills of 2-year-old children. Using data of 2.272 families of the infant cohort study of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), longitudinally assessed process characteristics (sensitivity in the sense of maternal responsivity to the child's behavior and signals in mother-child interaction; maternal stimulation behavior which goes beyond the child's actual level of action and development; frequency of joint picture book reading) and structural characteristics (mother's education, equivalised household income, parental occupational status) were considered. Language skills (vocabulary and grammar) of the children at the age of two were measured by a standardized and validated parent report instrument (child language checklist). Results showed that (1) all three process characteristics of the home learning environment (HLE) are associated with the family's SES; (2) across three assessment waves nearly all process characteristics predicted children's vocabulary and grammar skills with some process-specific changes across waves; (3) despite separate direct effects of nearly all HLE-process characteristics in each wave, the amount of explained variance in a joint model including the HLE facets from each wave is hardly higher than in the separate models; and (4) socioeconomic background predicted both language facets of the children in each model even when controlling for the assessed process characteristics of the home learning environment.
The goal of the present study was to unravel the unique contributions of fathers, mothers, and preschoolers to conversations about gender during picture book reading, as well as examining the ...relationship between parents' gender messages and their stereotypes. The sample consisted of 142 families. During a home visit, triadic parent-child Gender Stereotypes Picture Book reading was filmed to code implicit and explicit forms of gender talk. A computer task (implicit attitudes) and questionnaire (explicit attitudes) were used to measure parents' gender stereotypes. As expected, the gender picture book evoked questions and statements about gender (mostly from mothers). Regarding implicit forms of gender talk (i.e., gender labeling and evaluating activities), we found no structural differences between the three family members in terms of expressing stereotypical or contra-stereotypical ideas. There were also no differences between boys and girls in (receiving and expressing) implicit gender messages about the pictures. Regarding conversations that included explicit forms of gender talk, we found a pattern in which children started most often with a stereotypical comment, followed by questions (mostly mothers), confirmations, and negations by the parents. It was remarkable that children frequently received mixed messages in response to their stereotypical comments, and that children tended to stick to their stereotypical opinion even when challenged by their parents. Parents' gender messages were not structurally related to their gender stereotypes. This study shows that children are a driving force of family conversations about gender, and reveals messiness in the gender messages children receive from their parents.
Understanding how to enhance children's danger perception is one of the most important challenges in developmental psychology. Although the effect of picture-book reading on children's language and ...social cognitive development has been investigated extensively, it remains unclear whether picture-book reading has an effect within the context of crime prevention. We examined if picture-book reading would improve the ability to recognize dangerous situations in 4- to 6-year-old children. We also explored the relationship between tendencies to feel empathy for others and learning effectiveness of picture-book reading. In the study, children were asked what to do when addressed by a stranger and the reasons behind it, both before and after the picture-book reading session. The children proposed more appropriate danger-avoidance behaviors and plausible reasons after the picture-book reading session, and this facilitation effect was greater in older children. Children with higher empathy tended to benefit more from picture-book reading. The developmental changes in the effect of picture-book reading on danger perception and the practical applications of the results are discussed.
In children, storytelling provides many psychological and educational benefits, such as enhanced imagination to help visualize spoken words, improved vocabulary, and more refined communication ...skills. However, the brain mechanisms underlying the effects of storytelling on children are not clear. In this study, the effects of storytelling on the brains of children were assessed by using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Results indicated significant decreases of the blood flow in the bilateral prefrontal areas during picture-book reading when the subjects were familiarized in comparison to the cases of the subject naïve to the stories. However, no significant differences in the blood flow were found during storytelling between the subjects naïve and familiarized to the stories. The results indicated more sustained brain activation to storytelling in comparison with picture-book reading, suggesting possible advantages of storytelling as a psychological and educational medium in children.
This study examined whether picture-book reading by an adult to children could improve children’s cognitive abilities such as vocabulary, short-term memory and working memory. In the experimental ...group, the same picture-books were repeatedly read for each three days and children were asked to memorize the target words marked with a sticky note. In the control group, children were engaged in the picture-book reading activities as usual, in which different books were read randomly every day. We conducted four cognitive tasks — verbal and visuo-spatial working memory capacity, short term memory, and vocabulary — before and after the intervention period. Results showed that significant improvement in the vocabulary task in the experimental group, but not in the control group. In regard to the influence of the frequency of reading by parents at home, verbal working memory marginally improved in the high frequency group. These results suggest that picture-book reading in group and at home would have different effect on children’s cognitive abilities.
The importance of effective teacher-child interactions in preschool classrooms has been well documented; however, very few studies examined the difference between novice and experienced teachers. The ...aim of this study was to quantitatively compare the characteristics and patterns of teacher-child interactions during preschool picture book reading activities between novice and experienced teachers. Video observation data were collected from nine novice teachers and nine experienced teachers from a Chinese preschool, and were coded using the Flanders Interaction Analysis System. A total of 7,642 codes of experienced teachers and 6,444 codes of novice teachers were obtained. Aside from some commonalities, results indicated that there were several major differences between novice and experienced teachers. The indirect and positive influence on children, and the rate of positive influence to negative influence of experienced teachers were higher than that of novice teachers; the proportion of teacher talk, positive integration grid, steady-state grid, open question, and indirect response of novice teachers were higher than that of experienced teachers. The findings shed light on how novice and experienced teachers interact with their children, and how professional development supports should be delivered differently to novice and experienced teachers.
Background:
To delay cognitive decline, it is important to engage actively in preventive activities from middle age (50–64 years of age). We have developed a cognitive intervention program using ...picture book reading, and demonstrated that it is effective for improving memory in older adults. However, the effect of the intervention on memory and other cognitive functions in middle-aged people has not been examined. The current study investigated the effects of the picture book reading program on cognitive function in middle-aged people.
Methods:
This single-blind (examiners were blinded) randomized controlled trial was conducted in Tokyo, Japan. A total of 65 participants were randomly assigned to the intervention group (IG) (
n
= 32), in which members attended 12 picture book reading classes held once a week, or the active control group (CG) (
n
= 33), in which members received lectures on health maintenance. Cognitive tests were conducted before and after the intervention. The primary outcome was memory, and the secondary outcomes were verbal function and executive function.
Results:
The results showed that there was no significant difference between the IG and the CG in change scores (post minus pre) for memory. On the other hand, there was a significant difference in change scores of the category fluency, which is a measure of verbal function, suggesting improvements in IG compared to CG. There were also no significant differences in executive function.
Conclusions:
The results indicated that our previous finding of an improvement in memory function in older adults was not found in middle-aged people. However, the findings suggest that the picture book reading program may affect lexical access ability in verbal function among middle-aged people. Because maintaining verbal function is important for daily communication, these findings suggest that this program may be a useful countermeasure for cognitive decline in middle-aged people.
Clinical Trial Registration:
University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trial Registry,
https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr_e/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000048012
, Identifier: UMIN 000042071
Reading picture books in the first language (L1) before rereading them in the second language (L2) is assumed to be beneficial for young dual language learners (DLLs). This pilot study examined how ...sharing digital picture books in L1 or L2 at home before reading them in L2 in kindergarten affected L2 book-specific vocabulary learning and story comprehension. Participants were 14 three- and four-year-old children who spoke Polish at home and learned Norwegian as their second language. Even when DLLs were less advanced in L2, reading first in L1 was not advantageous for L2 vocabulary learning. Characteristics of caregiver–child interactions during the reading of digital picture books in L2 may explain why home reading in L2 was more beneficial than reading in L1 for less proficient young L2 learners.
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