The Importance of Embodiment and Agency in Parents’ Positive Attitudes Towards Shared Reading with Their Children

Editorial reading guide · Collaboration

Who gets to turn the page or change the subject when we read together?

Parents describe children's initiative, adults' direction and shared control during reading. The physical act of sitting together also enters their accounts.

Who was studied?

Twenty-four interviews with Norwegian parents about reading books with young children.

Age / stage: Ages one to four and a half

Read with three questions

1. How did parents describe a child's initiative in the interviews?
2. How did the researchers move from individual accounts to their interpretation?
3. How did the authors distinguish the adult’s participation from the child’s engagement?

Keep the limits in view

The accounts document experiences in the circumstances studied. They cannot establish how common an experience is in the wider population or measure an intervention effect.