The relationship between parent-child dialogic reading activities and children's emergent literacy skills in preschool period

Early childhood is a very critical and important period in terms of children's development. Children's close relationships with books in early childhood are considered important in terms of gaining reading awareness and reading habit skills at an early age. Interactive reading activities carried out in home-school environments are considered one of the most effective preventive intervention methods in ensuring that children are successful in their formal reading skills in primary school and in their future education processes. In this context, the research aimed to examine the relationship between parent-child book reading activities and children's early literacy skills. The research was designed with relational scanning, one of the quantitative research techniques. The research was conducted in the 2022-2023 academic year with the participation of children and their parents attending kindergartens and independent kindergartens affiliated with the Ministry of National Education (MEB) in Buca District of Izmir province. During the data collection process, the reading activities of the 5-6 year old children included in the study were observed together with their parents, and the Interactive Book Reading Behaviors Checklist was filled in by the researcher. The Early Literacy Skills Assessment Tool was applied to the children aged 5-6 within the scope of the investigative study. In addition, parents were asked to fill out an interview form to learn their demographic information. Parents' demographic information, parents' Interactive Book Reading Behaviors Checklist results, and children's Early Literacy Skills Assessment Tool scores were analyzed. While analyzing the obtained data, the scores of the scale items and sub-dimensions were calculated separately and the relationships between the items and sub-dimensions in the scales were determined. IBM SPSS Statistics 27 program was used in data analysis. The findings of the study indicated that there was a significant relationship between parents' interactive book reading behaviors (before and during the reading) interactive book reading and the number of children at home. The another finding of the study suggested that there was a significant relationship between the story comprehension and gender (girls better than boys) and also the emergent writing skills and socio-economical level. The results showed that variables such as duration of attendance at the educational institution, parents' age, education level, employment status, relationship status or children's birth order do not have a significant relationship with parental interactive reading behaviors or children's early literacy skills.