Word explanation and content expansion during storybook reading

We examined the relation between mothers’ word explanation and story
content expansion during shared book reading, family socio-economic
status (SES) and children’s language. The participants included 90
mothers and their children (aged 5–6 years) from low and middle SES.
Mother–child storybook reading was videotaped, and the child’s
vocabulary, storytelling and phonological awareness were tested.
Results show that the mothers explained about one word during the
book reading across SES, whereas story content expansion was more
frequent. Children’s language and mothers’ story content expansion
were correlated positively with SES, but mothers’ frequency of word
explanation and manner of explanations were not correlated with SES,
except for provision of word meaning, which correlated negatively
with SES. Story content expansion was related to the children’s
vocabulary level, whereas discussing story illustrations was negatively
related to the children’s vocabulary. The limited word explanation
support by mothers in shared book reading and its implications are
discussed.