Picture book reading with young children: A conceptual framework

The purpose of this paper is to synthesize research on picture book reading with young children (i.e., children under the age of 3). In this paper, we review cross-sectional, longitudinal, and intervention reading research and describe changes in both parental and children's behaviors during picture book reading from birth to age 3. Research related to additional factors that impact picture book reading between parents and their children such as parental characteristics (e.g., socioeconomic status), children's characteristics (e.g., interest in books), and attachment status is also reviewed. Such factors are proposed to influence the frequency and/or quality of reading interactions and the beneficial outcomes of reading on children's language development. Throughout the paper, we highlight gaps in the existing literature. From our synthesis, we propose a theoretical framework to guide future research involving reading with young children.