A cross-cultural comparison of mother-child interactions during shared reading: A pilot study

The quantity and quality of maternal interactive behaviours during shared reading were compared for mothers from China and mothers from the US.

Ten Chinese mothers from Fuzhou City in Fujian Province, China and 10 mothers from four US states video-recorded themselves reading two storybooks, one selected by the families and one by investigators, to their typically developing 4-year-olds. Videotapes were transcribed in Mandarin and English, respectively, and analysed using investigator-developed codes.

Chinese mothers had a higher percentage of extra-textual talk than US mothers and attention to print (i.e. English letters or Chinese characters) was uncommon among mothers in both groups. Chinese mothers had more frequent use of question prompts, acknowledgements, extensions, and explanations compared to US mothers. Only Chinese mothers elaborated on the moral of the story.

Chinese mothers' frequent use of a question-give-answer pattern was consistent with Chinese culture which prioritises assertiveness and education. Generalisation would require an investigation of within-culture variation as well as an increased sample size. Understanding shared reading as a culturally valid context can support emerging speech-language services in China.