The study is novel in that it has demonstrated that the quantity and quality of storytelling is related to children's development among young children in Japan, a country where knowledge of this topic is scarce.
- The following is content from the press release -
On Friday, December 20, 2024, the results of a joint research project between CEDEP of the University of Tokyo and Poplar Publishing Co. will be published in the Journal of Developmental Psychology, Volume 35, Number 4, edited and published by the Japanese Association of Developmental Psychology.
The paper was written by Keisuke Okubo, a specially-appointed assistant professor (at the time of the research, currently a lecturer at Kokushikan University's Faculty of Letters), Kensuke Sato, a specially-appointed assistant professor, Maie Hamana, and Shoko Nozawa, associate professors at the Center for Developmental Childcare Policy Studies (CEDEP) attached to the Graduate School of Education, the University of Tokyo.
The paper, "The relationship between picture book reading and young children's kana literacy and emotional comprehension: Focusing on the quality, quantity, and timing of reading to children," revealed that the quantity and quality of picture book reading were related to the development of young children's kana literacy and emotional comprehension skills, respectively. The study is novel in that it was conducted on Japanese preschoolers, for whom there has been little knowledge to date, and in that it revealed that the quantity and quality of storytelling are related to children's development in different ways.
The three main points of the paper are as follows
- An online survey of 3- to 6-year-old toddlers and their parents/guardians showed, for the first time in a quantitative study of Japanese toddlers, that the amount of picture book reading at home was associated with children's ability to read kana characters and the quality of reading was associated with children's ability to understand the emotions of others, respectively.
- On the other hand, the timing of the start of reading to children was not associated with children's ability to read kana characters or to understand the emotions of others.
- The project is expected to contribute to the development and improvement of methods for practical activities using picture books in homes and daycare facilities, in accordance with the respective aims of the project.
The papers can be found at the following websites
J-STAGE
https://doi.org/10.11201/jjdp.35.0086
Publication information on the paper can be found at the following website
Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo
https://www.p.u-tokyo.ac.jp/?p=6120
University of Tokyo CEDEP x Poplar Publishing Research on Children and Picture Books/Books
https://sites.google.com/g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cedep-poplar
For more information on the paper and the research, seedirectPlease contact us.
- Center for Developmental Childcare Practice and Policy Studies, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo
Project Assistant Professor Kensuke Sato
Tel: 03-5841-8311
E-mail: kensuke@p.u-tokyo.ac.jp - General Affairs Team, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo
Tel: 03-5841-3904
E-mail: edushomu@p.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Joint Research Project between CEDEP of the University of Tokyo and Poplar Publishing Co.
The joint research project between the University of Tokyo CEDEP and Poplar Publishing was launched in 2019. As digital media becomes increasingly popular and more children are exposed to smartphones and tablets in their infancy, on the other hand, local bookstores, which used to be the meeting place for children and books, are decreasing, and there is a strong sense of crisis that children will have less and less opportunities to come into contact with picture books and books.
Poplar Publishing believes that now is the time to review the value of "books" from the perspective of scientific research in order to "make as many children as possible into book lovers". We have decided to start this joint research with CEDEP, the University of Tokyo, which has a wealth of knowledge about infants and picture books and aims to conduct collaborative research with industry, government and academia.
This research aims to discover new values of picture books and books in the digital media age by clarifying the unique characteristics of picture books and books in children's growth and development process, their potential contribution to the development of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities, and the environment surrounding picture books in preschools and kindergartens through a scientific approach, and by disseminating the results of this research By disseminating the results of our research to society at large, we aim to provide a richer reading environment for children in the future.
In this project, we are conducting research to understand the actual conditions and relationships among the layers of children, families, preschools, and communities, based on a multi-layered view of the picture book and book environment surrounding children as an ecosystem. The ecosystem approach is based on the developmental psychologist U. Bronfenbrenner's ecological approach, which views human development as "a complex system in which people and their environment (context) interact with each other.
More information on joint research projects can be found at the following websites
University of Tokyo CEDEP x Poplar Publishing Research on Children and Picture Books/Books
https://sites.google.com/g.ecc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/cedep-poplar
