From Storybooks to Novels: A Retrospective Approach Linking Print Exposure in Childhood to Adolescence.

Despite the far-reaching advantages associated with leisure reading, it is an activity that fewer adolescents are choosing to pursue. The present study used a retrospective correlational approach to investigate shared storybook reading in childhood and current print exposure in 45 parent-adolescent dyads. Parents and adolescents completed a Retrospective Title Recognition Test, identifying storybook titles from a backdated list (books published before 2007) containing both real titles and foils. Adolescents also completed Activity Preference and Reading Enjoyment/Frequency questionnaires to assess reading habits as well as an Author Recognition Test to assess current print exposure. In addition, they were asked to name their favorite childhood storybook and favorite current author to investigate whether these two abilities were linked to print exposure. Vocabulary, reading, and spelling skills were also measured. A hierarchical multiple regression demonstrated that adolescents' Retrospective Title Recognition Test scores accounted for unique variance in their Author Recognition Test scores, above and beyond literacy skills. Mediational analyses demonstrated that print exposure contributed to word reading and spelling scores. Our findings highlight the impact of parents' shared storybook reading with children. Here, early reading experiences related to later reading preferences, which in turn, were associated with literacy skills in adolescence.

The effects of bilingual growth on toddlers' executive function.

The mastery of two languages provides bilingual speakers with cognitive benefits over monolinguals, particularly on cognitive flexibility and selective attention. However, extant research is limited to comparisons between monolinguals and bilinguals at a single point in time. This study investigated whether growth in bilingual proficiency, as shown by an increased number of translation equivalents (TEs) over a 7-month period, improves executive function. We hypothesized that bilingual toddlers with a larger increase of TEs would have more practice in switching across lexical systems, boosting executive function abilities. Expressive vocabulary and TEs were assessed at 24 and 31 months of age. A battery of tasks, including conflict, delay, and working memory tasks, was administered at 31 months. As expected, we observed a task-specific advantage in inhibitory control in bilinguals. More important, within the bilingual group, larger increases in the number of TEs predicted better performance on conflict tasks but not on delay tasks. This unique longitudinal design confirms the relation between executive function and early bilingualism.