Enhancing Spontaneous Interactive Questions by Parents and Children During Mathematics Storybook Reading

• In Event: 3-152 - Supports for Facilitating Parent-Child Math Engagement During Home Activities

Integrative Statement

Introduction: Interactive storybook reading between caregivers and children can enhance children’s language (Wasik & Bond, 2001) and numeracy skills (Anderson, Anderson, & Shapiro, 2005; Jennings et al., 1992). Yet, most children’s mathematics books are not designed in a way that supports children’s numeracy development (Ward et al., 2017) and do not incorporate techniques that have been shown to be effective more broadly in storybook reading interventions such as dialogic reading [DR]. In DR, the adult uses questions and prompts and adds information to scaffold the child’s language development (Lonigan et al., 1999). DR has been used effectively in prior mathematics intervention studies (Purpura et al., 2017). However, it is often difficult for caregivers to develop their own questions that support a back-and-forth dialogue with children. Furthermore, little work has been conducted in this area with dual language learners (DLLs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of incorporating prescribed DR prompts into mathematics-focused storybooks on parents’ and children’s use of spontaneous questions during shared reading and if this differed for DLLs and non-DLLs.

Hypotheses: It was hypothesized that when parents read storybooks with embedded DR prompts, they would ask additional spontaneous questions (i.e., questions about the story that were not the DR prompt) to their child than when they read storybooks without such prompts.

Study population: Participants included 28 parent-child dyads (27 mothers). Half of the participants were Spanish-English DLLs. Children were 38 to 74 months old, 16 were female, and 32% of parents had less than a college degree.

Methods: Parent-child dyads were videotaped reading two storybooks. One storybook included DR prompts on each page and the other included no prompts. The order in which parents read the books, and the specific books used, were counterbalanced across participants. Recordings were transcribed and coded by trained RAs. Specific codes included: use of DR prompts, spontaneous questions asked by parent, and spontaneous questions asked by child. A 2 (prompts: DR prompts, no prompts) x 2 (DLL status: DLL, not DLL) ANOVA was used to evaluate the effects of prompt inclusion on spontaneous questions asked by parents and children by DLL status.

Results: Findings indicated a significant main effect of including DR prompts on the number of spontaneous questions parents asked F(1,24)=25.40, p<.001, suggesting that inclusion of the prompts resulted in nearly three times as many spontaneous questions than when no prompts were included. However, this main effect was qualified by an interaction between prompts and DLL status F(1,24)=11.64, p=.002, indicating that the effect of DR prompts was primarily found with parents of DLLs (Figure 1). Further, there was no main effect of including prompts on children’s spontaneous questions, F(1,24)=0.52, p=.476, but there was a significant interaction of prompts x DLL status, F(1,24)=7.19, p=.013 suggesting that when prompts were included, children who are DLLs asked more spontaneous questions than when DR prompts were not included (Figure 2). Findings indicate that including DR prompts enhances parent and child use of spontaneous questions during book reading, but primarily for DLLs.

Authors

• David Purpura, Purdue University
  Presenting Author

• Melody Kung, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara Schmitt, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jennifer Dobbs-Oates, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Yemimah King, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy R. Napoli, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
  Non-Presenting Author

• Emily Rolan, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Meg Becker, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author