An Interactive Taxonomy of Mothers and Children During Storybook Interactions

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the social construction of interactions between mothers and children with a variety of developmental disabilities during storybook interactions. The study used interpretive methods to describe the participation of 20 preschool children and mothers in storybook interactions in terms of their interactive and communicative participation. Data were collected via home videotapes of mothers and children engaged in storybook interactions with novel (unfamiliar) storybooks for 15- to 30-minute interaction samples. Mothers were also interviewed concerning their beliefs and practices concerning early communication and literacy. Findings yielded an emerging interpretive taxonomy for observing and conceptualizing the social milieu of adults and children during storybook interactions that may be useful for enhancing communication and emergent literacy learning. The taxonomy may also be useful clinically to help parents and clinicians develop interaction styles that facilitate interaction and communication in emergent literacy contexts.