Quality of adult book reading affects children's emergent literacy

The authors assessed the relative benefits of 3 styles of adult book readin g for preschoolers' emergent literacy. A describer style focused on describ ing pictures during the reading, a comprehender style focused on story mean ing, and a performance-oriented style introduced the book and discussed sto ry meaning on completion. Forty-eight 4-year-olds were randomly assigned to receive I of the 3 reading styles over a 6-week period. Pretests and postt ests measured children's receptive vocabulary, print, and story comprehensi on skills. A describer style of reading resulted in the greatest overall be nefits for children's vocabulary and print skills, but a performance-orient ed style was also beneficial when children's initial skill levels were take n into account. Future book-reading interventions should be tailored to chi ldren's initial skill levels.