ABSTRACT Background The relationship between book reading and psychological wellbeing is gaining interest among those working in research, policy and practice, as we seek to better understand whether, and how, reading can support wellbeing. Yet, wellbeing has historically been poorly defined within reading research, and we lack a nuanced understanding of the ways in which children's book reading may support their psychological wellbeing. Methods Twenty‐four children (aged 9–11) from schools in England or Scotland participated in individual interviews to explore their reading experiences in depth, examining the relationship between their fiction book reading and psychological wellbeing, with a focus on the wellbeing concepts of positive affect, connection and personal growth. Results Fiction reading supported children's (a) positive emotions, through diverse emotional experiences, (b) feelings of connection, through connection to fictional characters, story events and real‐life others and (c) personal growth, through perceptions of a range of social, emotional, intellectual and educational benefits. Conclusions This study provides new and in‐depth insights, significantly expanding current understanding of how fiction book reading can support children's wellbeing. Educational implications, future research directions and limitations are discussed.

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Background Reading comprehension (RC) tests are meant to assess students' ability to read and process information within passages but also require students to read and understand the questions. Just as students of different reading achievement use varying compensatory skills to develop comprehension of a passage, we suspected skill level might also be related to different behaviours as they read questions and response options. Methods We analysed data of 174 students, with a mean age of 9.06 years. All students attended schools in the southeastern region of the United States and were assessed in English. Students were asked to read passages and respond to multiple‐choice questions as their eye movements were recorded. Results Compared to lower‐achieving students, higher‐achieving students (1) needed less time to read the passages and questions, (2) were sensitive to question type in that they took more time to read inferential‐question stems compared to literal stems and (3) were less likely to re‐read when answering questions, but if they did re‐read, they were more likely to answer literal questions correctly. Conclusions Just as lower‐achieving students experience greater challenges reading passages and have fewer skills to overcome those challenges, they likewise expend more effort reading questions and searching passages for answers. Unfortunately, their searches are less likely to result in the correct answer choices. Findings emphasise teaching evidence‐based test‐taking strategies that prioritise comprehension and highlight eye‐tracking technology's potential to inform RC test design and evaluation.

Abstract Background Dialogic reading (DR) is an interactive book reading method in which parents use scaffolded questions and responses by reading picture books to their children to foster their language ability development, enhance their reading interest and reduce their reading anxiety. However, little is known about the effects of parent–child reading and interaction in a dialect on children's language skills and language transfer across dialects. Methods This study investigated the effects of interactive parent–child reading in Hakka, a Chinese dialect, on Hakka and Mandarin language abilities in Chinese children. This study recruited 99 Chinese typically developing kindergarteners and their parents who had Hakka as their mother tongue and spoke Mandarin. They were randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control conditions. Parents in the intervention group were trained and supported to engage in dialogic reading with their children. All children were tested on receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, character reading, listening comprehension and reading anxiety in Mandarin and Hakka before and after the intervention. Results After a 12‐week parent–child reading intervention, the children in the intervention group showed better Hakka and Mandarin language abilities than the control group, thereby suggesting language transfer of skills across dialects. Also, the intervention group had lower reading anxiety than the control group. Conclusions The results of this study have extended the positive effects of dialogic reading to reading in Hakka and support the bilingual interactive activation model by showing the language transfer from the vernacular language to the official language in Chinese. The findings highlight the importance of engaging children in literacy activities using their mother tongue in promoting the development of skills in different languages that they are learning.

BackgroundWe investigated how the language of schooling (French vs. Italian) and linguistic status [monolinguals vs. language‐minority bilingual children (LMBC)] interact with the main dimensions of the simple view of reading (SVR), namely, decoding (D) and listening comprehension (LC).MethodWe examined 265 children [French: n = 113; Italian: n = 152; monolinguals: n = 149; LMBC: n = 116; mean age in months: 116.91 (SD = 9.41), range of age in months: 88–136] attending Grades 3, 4 and 5 while performing oral language (i.e., verbal knowledge and morphosyntactic comprehension), reading (i.e., word, pseudowords and comprehension) and cognitive tasks (i.e., nonverbal intellectual functioning).ResultsLC emerged as the unique significant predictor of reading comprehension (RC). No significant interactions were observed between the language of schooling and linguistic status. Also, nonverbal reasoning resulted in concurrently predicting RC, together with LC. Ultimately, while the linguistic status did not have a direct impact on RC, its effect was mediated by LC.ConclusionsSVR similarly applies to monolinguals and LMBC schooled in French and Italian. Further, adding nonverbal reasoning can improve the explained variance of the model. Lastly, our results suggest that children's oral language skills mediate the impact of bilingualism on RC. This understanding can inform educational practices for bilingual students.

BackgroundWe examine effects on oral reading fluency (defined as automatic word recognition and prosody) when phrase‐cued text (defined as marking the phrase boundaries in text) is layered on to readers theatre, an evidence‐based instructional format that includes multiple readings over a period of about 5 days as students practice and prepare to orally perform a poem or play for an audience.MethodsTen first‐ to third‐grade students (ages 6–9 years old) who were falling behind reading grade‐level expectations participated in the study. We used a randomised single‐case nonconcurrent multiple‐baseline research design that features a time‐staggered introduction of the instructional intervention across participants, along with an associated randomisation test statistical analysis. The design is particularly well suited to the present study because it yields valid results based on small sample sizes, contains its own control group (because each participant serves as his or her own control) and allows for the testing of the effectiveness of a specific instructional component – in this case, phrase‐cued text.ResultsAs hypothesised, adding phrase‐cued phrases led to a statistically significant performance increase on the combination of two subscales of the Multidimensional Fluency Scale (MFS), expression and phrasing, subscales that represent the subconstruct, prosody.ConclusionsAdding text with highlighted phrase boundaries enhanced the effect of readers theatre on two aspects of prosody: expression and phrasing.

BackgroundInternet documents are characterised by their non‐linear hyperlink structure, which allows for more flexible reading, at the cost of higher cognitive loads. Linear text reading comprehension skills contribute to hypertext comprehension (either directly or through its impact on navigation behaviours) but cannot fully account for its complexity. There is also evidence that hypertext reading engages executive functions, but few studies have addressed the core executive function processes simultaneously. This study examined hypertext comprehension and navigation skills and their association with linear text reading comprehension and executive functions in adolescents.MethodsOne hundred thirty‐six third‐year students (61% boys; age: M = 14.03, SD = 0.44 years) participated in the study. Students were assessed with a paper‐and‐pencil expository text comprehension test, a computerised neuropsychological battery to measure executive functioning (perceptual and response inhibition, shifting and working memory [WM]) and a hypertext comprehension task.ResultsWe found direct contributions of shifting, linear text comprehension and navigation efficiency to hypertext comprehension. Linear text comprehension was associated with shifting, while navigation efficiency increased with WM and linear text comprehension skills. In addition, navigation partially mediated the effects of linear text comprehension and fully mediated those of WM on hypertext comprehension.ConclusionsWe found direct and indirect contributions of executive function to hypertext comprehension, mediated by linear text comprehension and navigation efficiency. This suggests that finding and integrating information from hypertexts engages shifting beyond its contribution to linear text reading. The role of WM was explained by its contribution to navigation efficiency (providing a workspace to keep track of navigation paths, reading goals and inferential processing). These findings underline the relevance of high‐level cognitive abilities for Internet reading in adolescents, as well as the importance of teaching boosting navigation strategies in middle school, given their impact on hypertext comprehension.

BackgroundWe examined linguistic features in fourth graders' narrative and opinion writing and their relations to writing quality. We analysed narrative and opinion essays in terms of lexical sophistication and diversity as well as syntactic complexity, syntactic accuracy, and morphological complexity.MethodsData were from English‐speaking students in Grade 4 (N = 129; 50% female) in the United States, majority of whom were from low socioeconomic status background. Paired t tests were used to analyse differences of linguistic features between the two genres. Hierarchical regression models were run to examine how language features are related to writing quality.ResultsWords in the narrative task were more diverse and included more diverse verbal inflectional morphemes than those in the opinion task; syntactic complexity was significantly greater in the opinion genre, manifested by longer T‐units and the more frequent use of adverbial and relative clauses. Approximately 80% of T‐units were grammatical and 20% were ungrammatical. Syntactic accuracy and verbal morphological complexity of words were positively related to writing quality in the narrative task. Additionally, syntactic complexity measured by clauses per T‐unit, verbal and nominal morphological complexity of words were uniquely related to writing quality in the opinion genre.ConclusionsThe findings highlight the limited extent to which Grade 4 students use complex syntax in their writing. The study also supports the critical role of linguistic features in writing quality and shows both similarities and differences in language use in two important writing genres, narrative and opinion, in elementary grades.

BackgroundShared reading is an important opportunity for parents and children to connect and learn, which can support later independent reading skills. Much of the research to date has examined shared reading as parents read physical print books with their children. This research has demonstrated that parents tend to engage in more activities that emphasise the meaning of the stories over the code (i.e., print). Here, we examine the focus of shared reading when parents are reading with their children on paper versus on a digital device and whether this differs across the preschool years.MethodsA total of 253 parents of children aged 0–5 years completed an online self‐report questionnaire. Parents reported on the frequency of engaging in meaning‐ versus code‐related activities during shared book reading on paper and on screen with their youngest child. We conducted a linear regression analysis contrasting code‐ versus meaning‐related activities on paper versus screen modality with age as a continuous variable.ResultsKey to our objectives, parents reported engaging in meaning‐related activities more frequently during shared reading on paper versus on screens and in code‐related activities more frequently during shared reading on screens than on paper. These effects did not differ across age, although overall, parents reported engaging slightly more frequently in shared reading activities in general when their child was older.ConclusionsThe findings show that parents are engaging with their children differently as they read together on paper versus screens. Consistent with prior research, we found that activities emphasising the meaning of stories dominate shared paper book reading experiences in the preschool years. Critically shared reading on screens tips this balance, with parents reporting more code‐related activities. These patterns identify the learning opportunities enabled by the affordances of shared reading on screens.