Mental Engagement of Young Children During Story Time: The Effect of Detachable Images

Clifford Highnam, Ph.D., Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Northern Iowa
Donna Raschke, Ph.D., Department of Special Education, University of Northern Iowa
Frank Kohler, Ph.D., Department of Special Education, University of Northern Iowa

Introduction

This article describes the effect of using detachable visual images in early reading materials upon a child's mental engagement. Preschool and kindergarten-age children participated as listeners in a series of story readings. Four groups of children listened to three storybooks over 12 sessions. The three books were presented in two ways: one as a conventional picture book arrangement (the control condition) and the other as a picture book with detachable images. While all of the children demonstrated better mental engagement during reading sessions where images were detachable, the greatest effects were noted among children whose attention was poorest during conventional, regular reading activities.

Review of the Literature

Emergent literacy has been defined as the "reading and writing knowledge behavior of children who are not yet literate" (Justice and Kaderavek, 2002, p. 8). The emergent literacy perspective is based on cognitive and developmental psychology and social constructivism. From these orientations, it is believed that young children, over time, acquire literacy best through active involvement in meaningful literacy-related activities.

A print-rich environment is common to the experience of most children growing up in homes where parents are literate. In many of these homes, children are read to frequently. Reading to young children appears to influence their language development and their later ability to learn to read (Beals & Snow, 1994; Newman, 1999; Snow, 1983; Watson, 2001; Whitehurst, 1994). Among other benefits for reading to young children are that they often appear to become better listeners (Trelease, 1982). Listening to stories may also help children develop better thinking skills. That is, as they think about the stories they hear, children learn about logical thinking, cause-and-effect relationships, and sequencing. Stories broaden children's experiences and help them develop rich "imaging" abilities (Trelease, 1982). They also enable children to begin to understand the feelings of others (Smith, 1986).

The extent to which prereaders remain interested and engaged with reading materials and the storyteller's verbiage during storytime is undoubtedly important to what they take from the experience. Catts and Kamhi (2005) report that many parents read to their children nearly as early as the children are able to sit up and focus attention on books. These authors state, "parents work hard to get and keep their attention on these (books) and delight in their slightest attempts to participate" (p. 27). There appears to be an implicit understanding among most parents that their children's mental engagement during storytime is important to the quality of their experience.

Despite the obvious benefits of being read to early in life, some children lack interest in literacy activities. The lack of affinity toward reading among youngsters has been the object of limited research. Wells (1985, 1986), however, reported that 11 percent of preschoolers did not like to be read to. He discovered that many of these children, not surprisingly, lacked preliteracy knowledge, which predicted a later lack of interest in literacy and lack of concentration during literacy activities. The direct effects of a lack of interest and engagement in literacy activities upon reading development are not known. It is reasonable, however, to expect that children who show interest and fully engage in literacy activities will find more frequent opportunities to enjoy learning as a part of school.