This research synthesis examines whether the association between print exposure and components of reading grows stronger across development. We meta-analyzed 99 studies (N = 7,669) that focused on leisure time reading of (a) preschoolers and kindergartners, (b) children attending Grades 1-12, and (c) college and university students. For all measures in the outcome domains of reading comprehension and technical reading and spelling, moderate to strong correlations with print exposure were found. The outcomes support an upward spiral of causality: Children who are more proficient in comprehension and technical reading and spelling skills read more; because of more print exposure, their comprehension and technical reading and spelling skills improved more with each year of education. For example, in preschool and kindergarten print exposure explained 12% of the variance in oral language skills, in primary school 13%, in middle school 19%, in high school 30%, and in college and university 34%. Moderate associations of print exposure with academic achievement indicate that frequent readers are more successful students. Interestingly, poor readers also appear to benefit from independent leisure time reading. We conclude that shared book reading to preconventional readers may be part of a continuum of out-of-school reading experiences that facilitate children's language, reading, and spelling achievement throughout their development.

To read or not to read: A meta-analysis of print exposure from infancy to early adulthood.

Book reading has been demonstrated to promote vocabulary. The current study was conducted to examine the added value of an interactive shared book reading format that emphasizes active as opposed to noninteractive participation by the child. Studies that included a dialogic reading intervention group and a reading-as-usual control group, and that reported vocabulary as an outcome measure were located. After extracting relevant data from 16 eligible studies, a meta-analysis was conducted to attain an overall mean effect size reflecting the success of dialogic reading in increasing children's vocabulary compared to typical shared reading. When focusing on measures of expressive vocabulary in particular (k = 9, n = 322), Cohen's d was .59 (SE = .08; 95% CI = 0.44, 0.75; p < .001), which is a moderate effect size. However, the effect size reduced substantially when children were older (4 to 5 years old) or when they were at risk for language and literacy impairments. Dialogic reading can change the home liter...

Added Value of Dialogic Parent–Child Book Readings: A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examines the effects of vocabulary interventions on pre-K and kindergarten children’s oral language development The authors quantitatively reviewed 67 studies and 216 effect sizes to better understand the impact of training on word learning Results indicated an overall effect size of 88, demonstrating, on average, a gain of nearly one standard deviation on vocabulary measures Moderator analyses reported greater effects for trained adults in providing the treatment, combined pedagogical strategies that included explicit and implicit instruction, and author-created measures compared to standardized measures Middle- and upper-income at-risk children were significantly more likely to benefit from vocabulary intervention than those students also at risk and poor These results indicate that although they might improve oral language skills, vocabulary interventions are not sufficiently powerful to close the gap—even in the preschool and kindergarten years

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The Effects of Vocabulary Intervention on Young Children’s Word Learning A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examines to what extent interactive storybook reading stimulates two pillars of learning to read: vocabulary and print knowledge. The authors quantitatively reviewed 31 (quasi) experiments (n = 2,049 children) in which educators were trained to encourage children to be actively involved before, during, and after joint book reading. A moderate effect size was found for oral language skills, implying that both quality of book reading in classrooms and frequency are important. Although teaching print-related skills is not part of interactive reading programs, 7% of the variance in kindergarten children’s alphabetic knowledge could be attributed to the intervention. The study also shows that findings with experimenters were simply not replicable in a natural classroom setting. Further research is needed to disentangle the processes that explain the effects of interactive reading on children’s print knowledge and the strategies that may help transfer intervention effects from researchers to ...

Interactive Book Reading in Early Education: A Tool to Stimulate Print Knowledge as Well as Oral Language

When the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (K-ABC; A. S. Kaufman & N. L. Kaufman,. 1983a, 1983b) was published just over 10 years ago, it had many nal Kaufman Assessment Battery for. Children (K-ABC) (Kaufman &. Kaufman, 1983) in both its theoretical conception and structure. This chapter will provide a The first edition of the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children. (KABC; Kaufman & Kaufman, 1983) was a ground-breaking measure. Unlike most tests at the Mar 29, 2012 children second edition. (KABCII). Abstract. The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Second Edition (KABC-II; Kaufman & Kaufman,..

アメリカ合衆国におけるKaufman Assessment Battery for Childrenに関する研究動向

This research focuses on the ability of book-based animated stories, when well designed and produced, to have positive effects on young viewers' narrative comprehension and language skills. Sixty 5-year-olds, learning Dutch as a 2nd language, were randomly assigned to 4 experimental and 2 control conditions. The children profited to some extent from repeated encounters with a storybook with static pictures but more from repeated encounters with the animated form of the story. Both story formats were presented on a computer screen; both included the same oral text spoken in the same voice but the animated story was supplemented with multimedia features (video, sounds, and music) dramatizing the events. Multimedia additions were especially effective for gaining knowledge of implied elements of stories that refer to goals or motives of main characters, and in expanding vocabulary and syntax. The added value of multimedia books was strengthened over sessions. In a group from families with low educational levels who were lagging in language and literacy skills, multimedia storybooks seem to provide a framework for understanding stories and remembering linguistic information.

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The Promise of Multimedia Stories for Kindergarten Children At Risk

An adult read to 12 children from a regular paper book. Twenty-four children explored an electronic book similar in illustrations and story content (also called CD-ROM storybook, talking book, interactive book, or computer book). For half of this group the electronic book was available with and for half without restrictions concerning the games. Twelve control children were only pre- and posttested. After 6 sessions the examiner elicited an emergent reading of text and separate words to test to what extent children had internalized story meaning, phrasing, and features of written text. During the book-reading sessions children’s attention to text and iconic modes differed as a function of book format and children’s level of emergent literacy. The regular book format was more supportive of learning about story content and phrasing; both formats supported internalization of features of written words. In the extensive storybook reading literature, there is agreement on the assumption that early book-reading experiences support children’s reading development (Bus, van IJzendoorn, & Pellegrini, 1995; Scarborough & Dobrich, 1994; Teale, 1984). Our study focuses on what emergent readers internalize from repeated readings of books that are similar in illustrations and story content but differ in format (regular vs. electronic). The book’s format was expected to affect which aspects of books children focus on within the sessions and what children internalize from repeated readings of the focal book. We also tested how much children at different levels of emergent literacy internalize from various aspects of a book as a consequence of repeated readings of the focal book. It was expected that basic knowledge of reading built up by previous literacy-related experiences facilitate internalization of various aspects of each new book that is read to children (cf. Pappas, 1993). Sulzby’s (1985) description of what children internalize from a repeatedly read book suggests that least experienced children focus on events represented by the illustrations and just label or comment on pictures. As children’s reading experiences increase they begin to represent the story structure, suggesting that story understanding develops in the early stages of emergent literacy. It may also be deduced from Sulzby’s (1985) scale of emergent reading of a favorite book that as children become more experienced in understanding the story structure they begin to focus on the phrasing of the story. They internalize verbal text as a result of repeated readings, resulting in increasingly verbal reproductions of the text in the focal book or refusals to continue reading when attempts to reproduce the verbal text fail (Sulzby & Zecker, 1991). The most experienced children are interested in the written form of the text and begin to use text as a source of information when they reconstruct stories. Sulzby (1996) assumed that, in particular,

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Quality of book-reading matters for emergent readers: An experiment with the same book in a regular or electronic format

A counterbalanced, within-subjects design was carried out to study the efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's emergent story understanding. The study compared effects of children's independent reading of stories electronically with effects of printed books read aloud by adults. Participants were 18 four- to five-year-old Dutch kindergarten children in the initial stages of developing story comprehension but beyond just responding to pictures. Electronic reading produced experiences and effects similar to adult-read printed books. Children frequently interacted with the animations often embedded in electronic stories, but there was no evidence that the animations distracted children from listening to the text presented by electronic books, nor that the animations interfered with story understanding. Findings suggested that children at this stage of development profited from electronic books at least when electronic books are read in a context where adults also read books to children.

Se Elaboro un diseno balanceado intra-sujetos para estudiar la eficacia de los libros electronicos en la promocion de la comprension emergente de cuentos en ninos de nivel inicial. El estudio comparo los efectos sobre los ninos de la lectura electronica independiente con la lectura oral de libros impresos hecha por adultos. Participaron 18 ninos daneses de nivel inicial de cuatro a cinco anos que se hallaban en las primeras fases de desarrollo de la comprension de cuentos, apenas superada la etapa de responder solo a las imagenes. La lectura electronica produjo experiencias y efectos similares a los libros impresos leidos por adultos. Los ninos interactuaron frecuentemente con las animaciones que acompanan a menudo los cuentos electronicos, pero no se observo evidencia de que las animaciones distrajeran a los ninos de escuchar el texto presentado en los libros electronicos, ni tampoco de que las animaciones interfirieran con la comprension de los cuentos. Los hallazgos sugieren que los ninos en esta fase del desarrollo aprovechan los libros electronicos, al menos cuando dichos libros se leen en un contexto en el que los adultos tambien leen cuentos a los ninos.

Es wurde ein ausgewogenes Design innerhalb der Themen ausgefuhrt, um die Eindrucke von elektronischen Buchern zur Forderung des emporkommenden Verstandnisses der Kinder von Erzahlungen im Kindergarten zu untersuchen. Die Studie verglich Eindrucke der Kinder beim selbstandigen elektronischen Lesen von Erzahlungen mit Eindrucken beim lauten Vorlesen von Erwachsenen aus gedruckten Buchern. Die Teilnehmer bestanden aus 18 vier- bis funfjahrigen hollandischen Kindern im Kindergarten in den Anfangsstufen der Entwicklung des Erzahlungsverstandnisses, jedoch fortgeschrittener als bloses Reagieren auf Bilder. Elektronisches Lesen bewirkte Erfahrungen und Effekte ahnlich den durch Erwachsenen gelesenen gedruckten Buchern. Die Kinder gingen haufig gegenseitig auf die in den elektronischen Erzahlungen eingebetteten Animationen ein, jedoch gab es keinen Beweis dafur, dass die Animationen Kinder vom Zuhoren der von den elektronischen Buchern vermittelten Texte ablenkten, noch dass die Animationen das Erzahlungsverstandnis beeintrachtigten. Die Erkenntnisse legten nahe, dass Kinder in diesem Entwicklungsstadium von elektronischen Buchern profitierten, zumindest wenn elektronische Bucher in einem Kontext gelesen werden, wo Erwachsene ebenfalls den Kindern aus Buchern vorlesen.

Un plan experimental contrebalance intra-sujets a ete construit pour etudier l'efficacite des livres electroniques sur l'amelioration des debuts de la comprehension d'histoires chez des enfants de maternelle. L'etude compare les effets de la lecture autonome d'histoires par des enfants aux effets produits par la lecture de livres lus a haute voix par des adultes. Les participants etaient 18 enfants hollandais de maternelle âges de quatre a cinq ans, au moment ou ils commencent a comprendre une histoire, juste apres celui ou ils se contentent de reagir a des images. La lecture electronique produit des experiences et des effets semblables a ceux de livres lus par des adultes. Les enfants interagissent frequemment avec les animations qui sont souvent inclues dans les livres electroniques, mais rien n'indique que ces animations aient distrait les enfants de l'ecoute du texte que presentent les livres electroniques, ni qu'elles aient interfere avec la comprehension de l'histoire. Les resultats indiquent que les enfants a ce niveau de developpement tirent avantage des livres electroniques, au moins quand ils sont lus dans un contexte ou les adultes lisent egalement des livres aux enfants.

Maria T. de Jong

Papers

Added Value of Dialogic Parent–Child Book Readings: A Meta-Analysis

Interactive Book Reading in Early Education: A Tool to Stimulate Print Knowledge as Well as Oral Language

The Promise of Multimedia Stories for Kindergarten Children At Risk

Quality of book-reading matters for emergent readers: An experiment with the same book in a regular or electronic format

The efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's emergent story understanding