JOINT READING BETWEEN MOTHERS AND THEIR HEAD-START CHILDREN - VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT IN 2 TEXT FORMATS

The intent of this study was to examine the ways in which Head Start c hildren's vocabulary was developed when they and their mothers engaged in joint reading contexts. Nineteen dyads were observed while interac ting around expository texts presented in two formats: familiar (newsp aper toy advertisements) and traditional (trade books). Dyads in this study were observed in their homes across four observations while read ing a series of presented texts. Children's ability to identify words from the texts read was measured as was their comprehension of a stand ardized receptive vocabulary list. Mothers talked more than children i n all contexts; furthermore, different forms of talk were observed aro und the different text formats. Correlational and sequential analyses indicated that children's word recall was best predicted by responsive maternal strategies, such as encouraging children to talk about the t ext, and children's modelling maternal strategies. Word recall and voc abulary, however, was significantly correlated with children's languag e generated around traditional, not familiar, format texts.