The influence of home-based reading interactions on 5-year-olds’ reading motivations and early literacy development

Abstract In order to understand the impact of home-based reading practices on young children’s literacy development, we need to consider both the types of comments made while reading as well as the affective quality of the reading interaction. Five-year-olds, during the summer prior to kindergarten, were observed reading both a familiar and an unfamiliar book with a member of their family, usually a parent but in one-third of the cases, an older sibling. Children came from either African-American or European-American families. Most of the children (about 83%) came from low income families. Both the nature of comments made about each book and the affective quality of the interactions were coded. Parents also were interviewed about the frequency with which their children engaged in reading activities at home. Children’s phonological awareness, orientation toward print, and story comprehension were assessed during the spring of kindergarten; their motivations for reading were assessed at the start of first grade. Comments about the content of the storybook were the most common type of utterance during reading interactions. Reported reading frequency was the only significant correlate of children’s early literacy-related skills. In contrast, the affective quality of the reading interaction was the most powerful predictor of children’s motivations for reading. These results emphasize the importance of the affective quality of reading interactions for fostering children’s interest in literacy.