ABSTRACT
One of the most ubiquitous activities in early childhood is shared storybook reading (Simcock and DeLoache 2006). Both receptive and expressive vocabulary are predicted by the number of times parents read to their children and the number of trips they take to the library (Arterberry et al. 2007), and shared storybook reading also promotes later academic achievement (Lonigan and Whitehurst 1998). Importantly, preschool children are able to learn words via shared storybook reading (Blewitt and Reese, this volume, Chapters 6 and 10 respectively). Given how common shared storybook reading is in children’s everyday lives (Simcock and DeLoache 2006), it presents a naturalistic domain in which to explore empirically how children really learn words in real life.
