The Impact of Nonfiction and Fiction Picture Books on Preschooler's Vocabulary Development

Abstract

There is an abundance of research demonstrating that reading picture books to preschool-aged children can enhance their language development. Previous studies have shown that reading picture books to children at a young age can enhance their reading comprehension and their ability to decontextualize text (Dickinson & Snow, 1987; Marra, 2014). During book-reading sessions, fiction picture books are the preferred genre by most parents, teachers and caregivers when reading to young children. But what about nonfiction picture books? Studies have shown that nonfiction picture books have some benefits for child vocabulary development; however, they are the least selected genre when reading to children. Children who are not exposed to nonfiction literature in combination with fiction literature, may be relatively disadvantaged with regard to vocabulary development, especially for those in low-socioeconomic status (SES) communities. This study will examine the effects of reading a combination of fiction and nonfiction picture books (relative to only fiction books) on preschooler's vocabulary development. Due to do the current pandemic, this will be a project proposal. Researchers will recruit a total of 40 preschool children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old from two different preschool classrooms in a center serving low-SES children. Participants matched on general receptive vocabulary at pre-test, will be broken up into two conditions in which children will be read either fiction picture books or a combination of fiction and nonfiction picture books. Participants from both conditions will be pre-and post-tested on receptive vocabulary with a target list of words related to space. It is hypothesized that a combination of fiction and nonfiction picture books will increase target vocabulary more than fiction picture books alone. This study adds to previous research investigating how nonfiction and fiction picture books enhance early vocabulary development. Researchers believe that this information could be useful for teachers, parents/caregivers by incorporating more nonfiction literature in book-reading sessions.