Chapter 2: Interactive and Traditional Books: Literacy Beliefs and Practices in Latino Families

Parent reports of literacy beliefs and practices, and observations of parent-toddler book-sharing interactions were used to investigate the effectiveness of a homebased intervention using traditional books and interactive books with low-income Latino families, half recent immigrant parents and half long time residents. Results showed that all parents had positive orientations toward child-centered literacy activities but low numbers of children’s books and frequency of book-sharing in the home. Compared to interactive books, parents used greater language quantity and diversity for the traditional books. There were no differences based on book type for family time spent in various participation patterns; for both book types, more time was spent in collaborative and negotiation participation patterns, and less time spent in asynchronous and off-task participation patterns.