Variability and stability in parent–child discourse during and following repeated shared book reading

Research on parent–child shared book reading (SBR) has focused primarily on a single reading of a book and on the reading of the text itself. Yet parents often repeatedly read the same book to their child and continue to converse after the book is finished. Using Bruner’s dual-landscape model as a theoretical basis, this study explored the variability and stability of parent–child discourse during and following three repeated readings of the same book, controlling for mother’s education and child’s language level. Participants included 50 preschool children (24 girls, 26 boys), whose average age was 55.64 months (SD = 4.53) and their parents (44 mothers, 6 fathers). We videorecorded three complete SBR interactions with the same book in the families’ homes. Analysis focused on parents’ and children’s utterances at the action level and the consciousness level. Negative binomial regressions revealed that parents made more utterances relating to the action level of the book in the first reading, decreasing across readings, and fewer utterances relating to the consciousness level of the book in the first reading, increasing across readings. Children spoke less than their parents but their involvement increased across readings. Following readings, parents used utterances relating to both the action and the consciousness levels, starting from the first post-reading conversation. Results also showed stability in the discourse; that is, there was consistency in the quantity of parents’ and children’s utterances across the readings and across the post-reading conversations. Repeated SBR and post-reading conversation have the potential to promote and enrich parent–child discourse surrounding both the action and the consciousness landscapes of a book and increase children’s involvement. We discuss how the current study provides research support for Bruner’s theory, and provides insights that can contribute to practical applications.