Mothers', preschool teachers', and speech-language pathologists' shared book reading with preschoolers in Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore mothers', preschool teachers', and speech-language pathologist's (SLP) shared book reading practices with preschoolers in Taiwan. Ten mothers, 10 preschool teachers, 10 SLPs and 30 preschoolers aged from 3 years 2 months old to 5 years 5 months old participated in this study. All participants were Taiwanese. Adults completed questionnaires about their shared book reading practices and participated in a shared book reading session with a preschool child using an unfamiliar book. The shared book reading between adult and child dyads were video and audio recorded. Mothers and preschool teachers read with typically developing children and SLPs read with children with specific language impairment. It was found that half of the mothers began to read to their children around one year of age. Most of the mothers read picture books with their child multiple times a week for 5 to 20 minutes in one book reading session. Also, mothers asked significantly more decontextualized questions than contextualized questions during shared book reading, with a large effect size. The mothers' level of education may be a factor associated with their greater use of decontextualized questions compared to contextualized questions. Most of the Taiwanese preschool teachers read with children multiple times a week for 10 to 20 minutes in one book reading session. The most often selected reading material was a picture book. There was no difference between the teachers' production of contextualized compared to decontexualized questions; however, a moderate effect size was present. The age of the child being read to and the level of teacher education may have affected the use of contextual questions, with more contextual questions being used with three year olds and by teachers with less education. A majority of the Taiwanese SLPs conducted shared book reading with children multiple times a week and each book reading session took 10 to 20 minutes for most of the SLPs. Picture books were most often selected by SLPs. No significant difference was present between SLPs' production of contextualized and decontextualized questions. However, a medium effect size was evident. Children's age might have influenced the SLPs' types of questions during shared book reading. SLPs tended to ask more contextualized questions than decontextualized questions when reading with 3 year olds compared to 4 and 5 year olds.