Maternal attention utterances during shared book reading: Preschoolers' engagement visual attention and their literacy outcomes

Maria Fernanda Tineo, Purdue University

Abstract

This study examines the association between maternal use of attention utterances and low-income preschoolers' engagement and visual attention and how these associations may lead to preschoolers' early learning performance. Fifty Head Start children with their mothers were invited to participate in this study. During the fall of the preschool year, children's early literacy skills were assessed at school, and mother and child shared book reading was observed at home. Children's engagement was assessed through five indicators of reading engagement based on frequencies of children's utterances during book reading; children's visual attention was measured using the percentage of time children gazed at the book or at the mother during book reading. Overall, mothers' use of attention utterances was found to be positively associated with other types of maternal utterances, but not associated with children's overall engagement and visual attention during book reading. Children's attention measures were found not to be associated with their performance on early literacy outcomes. Children's visual attention and engagement were positively associated with mothers' use of code-focused utterances during the reading activity. Implications of the findings and future directions are discussed.

Degree

M.S.

Advisors

Posada, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Early childhood education|Literacy|Reading instruction|Developmental psychology

COinS