THE INFLUENCE OF PARENT GENDER ON THE VERBAL TEACHING STRATEGIES OF SELECTED FATHERS AND MOTHERS DURING WRITTEN LANGUAGE EPISODES WITH THEIR PREKINDERGARTEN CHILDREN

This descriptive study was designed to gain information about parental oral language functions during written language episodes with their prekindergarten children. Previous research had suggested that differential interaction patterns existed between father-child and mother-child dyads, and that these differences had impact on children's development. A general observation had been that fathers tended to be less verbal and more physical with their young children than did mothers. The question raised for this investigation was whether similar differences existed in oral language functions when fathers and mothers interacted with their prekindergarten children during written language activities.;The oral language of fathers and mothers was compared for similarities and differences in functions. Both qualitative and quantitative analysis of the data indicated that there were no significant differences in the oral language functions between fathers and mothers in the same family. However, differences in functions of oral language were observed between parents in different families, despite the fact that all participating families shared similar demographic information.;The findings from this study lead to a number of recommendations. Included was a recommendation that further study be made to investigate the specific influences of parental oral language on children's written language development. A second recommendation was made to investigate changes in parental oral language functions at different points in children's written language development.;Nine upper middle class families volunteered to be videotaped as father-child and mother-child dyads in each family participated in drawing/writing and letter writing activities. Parental oral language was coded on the Parent-Child Oral Language Scale (Searcy, 1984) in order to identify the functions of oral language used by each parent. Functions of language coded on this scale included questioning or commenting; requesting, inviting, insisting, or interrogating; ignoring, praising, accepting, or rejecting.