Relations between fantasy and transfer of learning from storybooks

Children learn cause-and-effect relations from fantastical and realistic storybooks

Young children struggle with the "reader's dilemma" (i.e., which aspects of a story with fantasy elements apply to real life), and research finds that incorporating fantasy elements such as anthropomorphic characters and unrealistic settings into storybooks can negatively affect children's learning. To explore whether children can learn about a cause-and-effect relation from fantasy storybooks, we presented children with a realistic storybook or one containing varying levels of fantasy (Study 1) and a storybook with multiple fantasy elements (Study 2). Children learned about a target event depicting a physical cause-and-effect relation (i.e., if you flick your wrist, the stone will skip across the water), and we assessed their comprehension of the target cause-and-effect relation and their ability to generalize this information to the real world and reason counterfactually about the outcome. Across two preregistered studies (3- to 5-year-olds, N = 214), 5-year-olds, and some 4-year-olds, learned and generalized their knowledge about the target cause-and-effect relation from both the realistic and fantastical storybooks, suggesting that fantasy does not hinder children's learning about physical cause-and-effect relations.

Young children's science learning from narrative books: The role of text cohesion and caregivers' extratextual talk

One way to support young children's factual learning is through shared book reading (reading books with a knowledgeable other). Many books that teach factual content are narrative in structure, in which factual content is embedded within a fictional storyline. However, there are gaps in our understanding of factors influencing children's factual learning from narrative books. In this experiment, 38 caregivers and their 4- to 5-year-old children from the Southeastern United States participated. Each caregiver read to their child two narrative books on science concepts. The books varied in their levels of cohesion (e.g., drawing connections between textual elements and providing details and comparisons). We coded caregivers' extratextual talk while reading for the extent to which it emphasized science information (informational highlighted talk) or went beyond the text to provide further related information (informational elaborative talk). Children's recall of the books' science and story content was tested in free and probed recall formats. We found that children had higher recall of the story content, even though caregivers emphasized the science content through their highlighted extratextual talk. Caregivers used more elaborative extratextual talk with the low cohesion book, perhaps as compensation for the book's lack of cohesion. However, children's recall of the science content was most strongly predicted by the books' cohesion and caregivers' highlighted extratextual talk. These results emphasize the important role that books' textual features and caregivers' extratextual talk during book reading have on young children's factual learning from narrative books.

Science in stories: Implications for Latine children's science learning through home-based language practices

There is growing interest in stories as potentially powerful tools for science learning. In this mini-review article, we discuss theory and evidence indicating that, especially for young children, listening to and sharing stories with adult caregivers at home can make scientific ideas and inquiry practices meaningful and accessible. We review recent research offering evidence that stories presented in books can advance children's science learning. Nonetheless, most of this work focuses on middle-class European-American U. S. children and involves narrative story books. Given the national imperative to increase Latine representation in STEM education and career pursuits in the U. S., we argue that it is vital that we broaden the definition of stories to include oral narrative storytelling and other conversational routines that Latine families engage in at home. Cultural communities with firmly rooted oral traditions, such as those from Latin American heritage, rely frequently on oral storytelling rather than book reading to convey world and community knowledge to young children. Therefore, we advocate for a strengths-based approach that considers Latine families' everyday practices around science and storytelling on their own terms instead of contrasting them with European-American middle-class practices. We offer support for the view that for young children in Latine communities, culturally relevant oral practices, including personal narrative storytelling, can engender significant opportunities for family science learning at home.