Shared-Book Reading
Practice:
Shared Book reading is the practice of having an adult read to one or more children, with the purpose of encouraging a love of reading. Shared Book reading aims at enhancing language and literacy skills in young children, without requiring extensive interaction from them.
Maryland State Standards:
Goal: Reading Comprehension
Indicator: Demonstrates understanding of text (after reading)
Objectives: Recalls information from text
Responds to text in a variety of ways: Retell, Dramatize, Draw
Retell a story as though reading a book
Research:
Irlen, S. M. (2003a). The impact of video viewing and retelling on preliterate children's narrative comprehension. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64 (04), 1174A. (UMI No. 3088967). (Study: storybook-retell versus video-retell).
Irlen (2003a) included 33 four- to five-year-olds from three preschools in the Los Angeles area of California. The two groups included: storybook-retell (adults read a book to a group of children and children retold the story) and video-retell (children watched the story on a video and then retold the story). The study also included 10 children in a no-treatment comparison group that was added to the study sample after group assignment was complete and the intervention had started. The 10 children added after the group assignments were not included in the WWC review of the study. According to the WWC, in this study, there were no statistically relevant differences in language development between the groups who were read to and those who watched a video.
Rating: Does Not Meet Evidence Standards
As teachers we want to assume that reading aloud is more beneficial to children than watching a video, but the evidence does not necessarily support this assumption.
Irlen, S. M. (2003b). The impact of video viewing and retelling on preliterate children's narrative comprehension. Dissertation Abstracts International, 64 (04), 1174A. (UMI No. 3088967). (Study: storybook-repeat versus video-repeat).
Irlen (2003b) included 30 four- to five-year-olds from three preschools in the Los Angeles area. The two groups were: storybook-repeat (children listened to the story twice) and video-repeat (children watched the story twice). The study also included 10 children in a no-treatment comparison group that was added to the study sample after group assignment was complete and the intervention had started. As above, the WWC chose not to evaluate the children who were added after the study began. As with the previous study, the WWC found no relevant differences in the language development of children who were read to versus those who watched videos.
Rating: Does Not Meet Evidence Standards
As above, there is no direct evidence in this study to say that being read to is better for children than to watch a movie of the same story.
Lonigan, C. J., Anthony, J. L., Bloomfield, B. G., Dyer, S. M., & Samwel, C. S. (1999). Effects of two shared-reading interventions on emergent literacy skills of at-risk preschoolers. Journal of Early Intervention, 22 (4), 306–322.
Lonigan et al. (1999) included 95 two- to five-year-old predominantly low-income children from five child care centers in an urban area in Florida. This study compared two interventions—Dialogic Reading and typical Shared Book Reading —to a no-treatment comparison group. The WWC report focuses on the comparison of oral language between the typical Shared Book Reading group and the comparison group which did not receive treatment, with a total of 61 children. As measured by the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery-Listening Comprehension Subtest (WJ-LC), there was a significant difference in favor of the intervention group. Although the study included 4 measurements, only the Woodcock-Johnson produced any difference in favor of the intervention group.
Rating: Meets Evidence Standards with Reservations
The study did find a positive correlation between Shared Book Reading and oral language, but this correlation was on only one out of the four tests administered to the children.
Conclusion:
The majority of the studies found do not meet evidence standards and there is no direct evidence that Shared Book Reading has any positive effect on children’s language and literacy skills in relation to watching the same story on a video. The last study reviewed showed a positive correlation between Shared Book Reading and higher scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Listening Comprehension subtest. Although a positive correlation was found, it was found only on 25% of the tests administered. There is no evidence thus far that proves that Shared Book Reading will improve a child’s language or literacy skills.
Reflection:
Although there does not seem to be a vast amount of research stating the benefits of reading aloud to children, I will still make a point of using Shared Book Reading with my class and individual children. I believe that a love of books and a love of reading is important to help children get through school and to become contributing members of society. While children may get the same information or story out of watching a video, the video does not encourage the child to practice reading and phonics. Also, children genuinely enjoy being read to and it is a great bonding experience for children and adults.
