Parents' interactions with their first-grade children during storybook reading and relations with subsequent home reading activity and reading achievement

This study examined parents' verbal and affective interactions with their f irst-grade children during shared storybook reading and how these interacti ons relate to growth in children's reading activity and achievement. Partic ipants varied in income level and ethnicity. The nature and amount of meani ng-related talk was similar regardless of whether the parent or child assum ed primary responsibility for reading, but there was more talk about the re ading process itself (word recognition) when the child read. Talk that went beyond the immediate content of the story was more common among middle-inc ome families. Positive affective interactions were associated with meaning- related talk, and negative interactions were associated with parental attem pts to have the child use decoding strategies to identify unknown words. Af fective quality was an important contributor to children's reading of chall enging materials in third grade but not to their reading achievement. Impli cations for advising parents on reading with their children are considered. (C) 2001 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.