# Parent-infant learning dynamics during early shared book reading

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2021 · $186,812

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Shared book reading has been found to have broad developmental benefits for language, socio-emotional and
cognitive development. However, the effects of shared book reading on infant development are not well
understood. Although healthcare professionals and educators ask parents to read books to their infants early
and often, the book reading experience itself has never been systematically investigated in infancy. This work
is guided by two specific aims and is expected to result in a better understanding of the effectiveness of shared
book reading as a tool for supporting parent-infant interactions and infant learning across the first year of life.
The first aim of the proposed research is to determine the extent to which infant and parent visual attentional
coupling during shared book reading predicts later: a) infant selective attention and b) infant and parent neural
coupling. The second aim of the proposed work is to determine the extent to which books with individually-named
characters (e.g., “Boris”, “Fiona”) increases parent-infant joint attention and infant selective attention relative to
books with generic labels (e.g., “Bear”, “Bear”) or no labels and whether attention differs by age. To address the
aims of this project, a cross-sectional sample of 6-, 9-, and 12-month old infants and their parents will come to
the laboratory and read a book that includes three distinct character labeling conditions (individual names,
generic category labels, no label). During infant-parent shared book reading joint attention will be measured
using dual eye-tracking. Infants and parents will then return to the lab the next day and infant selective attention
and infant-parent neural synchrony will be measured using EEG frequency tagging while infants and their parent
view familiar characters across labeling conditions as well as unfamiliar characters. If the aims of the proposed
research are achieved, we will have determined the extent to which parent-infant joint attention prompts
subsequent selective processing of book content in 6-, 9-, and 12-month old infants. This study will also be the
first to record dual infant and parent high density EEG during an experimental task and use neural synchrony as
an outcome measure. The dual eye-tracking and EEG findings will allow for a better understanding of dyadic
interactions between infants and parents. Finally, we expect that this investigation will show benefits of early
shared book reading for infant development. Our long term goal is to use this data to support the inclusion of
early shared book reading in early prevention programs targeting those at risk for poor health outcomes or
developmental disabilities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10232114
- **Project number:** 5R21HD102715-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Andreas Keil
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $186,812
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-07 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10232114

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10232114, Parent-infant learning dynamics during early shared book reading (5R21HD102715-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10232114. Licensed CC0.

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