The Relationship Between Shared Picturebook Reading and Language Development in Young Children

Picturebooks can play an important function in the development of language by promoting language acquisition and enriching the overall language development of the child. Reading picturebooks to children builds a number of developmental domains and fosters significant learning outcomes for future achievements. In this study, children's ability to acquire language through picturebooks was tested to determine if more exposure to picturebooks related to higher vocabulary language development. Participants for this study were anonymous parents of children 16-30 months of age (N = 60), who agreed to answer questions on a survey distributed via social media. The survey included demographic information, specific questions related to shared picturebook reading in the home, and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, and the information gathered was used to determine the relationship between the shared reading of picturebooks to language development. Results showed that children who are exposed to a higher amount of time being read to by parents had higher language abilities than children who had less exposure to picturebook reading.