An Online Survey of Picture Book Reading Practices with Children Between the Ages of 0 and 30 Months

ABSTRACT

There is a great deal of variability in how families read and interact with picture books. To understand why reading practices may (or may not) relate to language outcomes, a necessary step to understand what occurs in the home. The goal of this work is to better understand the frequency and nature of picture book reading at home with children between the ages of 0 and 30 months in the United States. In an online survey, 282 caregivers answered questions about their picture book reading habits. Book reading was overall very common. Over 90% of families reported reading at least weekly to their child and nearly 70% reported reading daily, with caregivers of older children reporting reading slightly more frequently than caregivers of younger children. Caregivers also reported reading picture book text as well as a range of extra-textual activities. These textual and extra-textual behaviors varied across families and varied with child age and language skills. This study provides insight into how much, and what kind of linguistic input children encounter during picture book reading, and how this input may vary with age.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by NSF grant BCS-1749594 and a James S. McDonnell Foundation Scholar Award to JLM.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the James S. McDonnell Foundation and the National Science Foundation [BCS-1749594].