Poster #165 - Evaluating the Use of Instructional Guides to Promote Positive Parent-Child Interactions During Storybook Reading

• In Event: 2-055 - Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Section - Prevention and Interventions

Integrative Statement

Storybook reading can prepare children for school entry and promote mathematical thinking by connecting mathematical concepts to children’s everyday lives (Moyer, 2000). Furthermore, storybooks offer adults ways to engage in math conversations with children (Anderson, Anderson, & Shapiro, 2005). Although reading is common in many households, parents may not systematically notice mathematical concepts in books and engage children in conversation about those concepts (Uscianowski, Almeda, & Ginsburg, 2018). Therefore, we created a Math Picture Book Analysis Guide and a Parent’s Guide to Reading Math Storybooks for use in parent workshops and interventions to promote engaging conversations around storybooks that accurately depict mathematics concepts in appealing ways. The Analysis Guide is designed to help parents differentiate between effective and ineffective math storybooks. The Parent’s Guide offers interactive strategies for reading math storybooks with preschool-aged children.

We conducted two online studies to examine whether our guides can teach adults how to use storybooks to engage children in mathematical thinking. Participants were presented with the guides on Amazon Mechanical Turk before answering a series of Likert-scale and open-response questions, such as, “How would this guide change the way you select and read storybooks with children?” Fifty adults evaluated our Math Picture Book Analysis Guide in Study 1 (30% male, 70% female, Mage=32) and 48 adults evaluated our Parent’s Guide to Reading Math Storybooks in Study 2 (22.9% male, 77.1% female, Mage=37).

Results demonstrate that participants value reading with children and are receptive to storybook guides, which heightened their awareness of mathematical content in storybooks (see Figure 1 and Figure 2). Qualitative analysis revealed a number of common themes. First, participants learned that storybooks do not always present correct mathematical content. This increased awareness may influence the kinds of storybooks adults select and may inspire them to consider the importance of accurate mathematics in storybooks, including coherence between illustrations and text. Moreover, some participants reflected on their experiences reading with children and commented that the guides offered ways to build upon existing reading practices. Some parents indicated that they would not likely use guides in print form, which led us to explore alternate versions, such as digital guides. Future studies can examine how the presentation of instructional material influences parents’ use and children’s outcomes. Overall, participants expressed that the guides both reinforced familiar content and offered new insights into math storybook reading.

Our findings demonstrate that reading guides can build upon existing practices and increase awareness for math concepts in storybooks, validating their use in parent workshops. Our method of creating and evaluating instructional materials contributes to the study of parent engagement in learning and can be replicated by other researchers. This method involved three stages: (1) using a research-based approach to develop guides, (2) testing the efficacy of the guides to learn how they might influence reading behaviors, and (3) revising the guides based on feedback. After revising the guides, our future work will focus on empirically testing whether they impact how parents select, evaluate, and read math picture books with their children.

Authors

• Colleen Uscianowski, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Presenting Author

• Myra Luna-Lucero, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ma. Victoria Almeda, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Herb Ginsburg, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author