亲子共读(shared book reading, SBR)指在轻松、愉快的亲子氛围中，父母或主要养育者和儿童共同阅读图书的类似游戏的活动。作为一种理想的语言输入方式亲子共读备受广大研究者和教育工作者关注，已被证实与儿童多方面，尤其是语言能力发展密切相关。婴幼儿期作为儿童语言能力发展的关键时期和重要阶段，这一时期儿童是否能够获得从丰富、复杂的刺激中学习的机会对其语言能力发展至关重要。然而，国内目前针对较小年龄婴幼儿开展的亲子共读研究较少。同时，已有研究对亲子共读促进儿童语言能力发展的作用机制缺乏探讨。

基于以上问题，本论文选取未进入幼儿园的8~46个月婴幼儿及其母亲作为被试，综合运用多种方法和技术手段，包括问卷调研、行为观察和近红外光谱成像技术(functional near-infrared spectrosocpy, fNIRS)，全面探讨亲子共读经验(shared book reading experience)和亲子共读质量(shared book reading quality)与婴幼儿语言能力之间的关系；同时从行为和脑活动层面考察在两者关系中起作用的重要变量；对不同类型亲子共读过程中母亲和婴幼儿的行为模式进行深入分析，在促进本领域研究深入发展的同时，也为广大家长和教育工作者更好地开展亲子共读实践活动提供科学依据及可供参考的建议。本论文共包含四个实证研究。

   研究一以165对亲子(婴幼儿月龄24.25±10.59)作为研究对象，采用“基本信息及亲子共读经验调研问卷”对亲子共读起始时间(begin time)、共读频率(frequency)、共读持续时长(duration)及婴幼儿读过的图书数量进行调研；采用“汉语沟通发展量表”(Communicative Development Inventory, PCDI)及“学龄前儿童普通话口语能力测验”(Mandarin Oral Language Screener – Preschool, MOLS-P)对婴幼儿语言能力进行评估，考察亲子共读经验的不同指标与婴幼儿语言能力之间的关系，及这一关系在不同年龄段婴幼儿群体中是否存在差异。结果发现，与亲子共读起始时间和共读频率相比，每次共读持续时长及婴幼儿读过的图书数量与婴幼儿语言能力之间关系更为密切；亲子共读经验与婴幼儿语言能力之间的关系在不同年龄段婴幼儿群体中存在差异。进一步检验发现，月龄在亲子共读经验和婴幼儿语言能力之间起调节作用，大龄组亲子共读经验能够显著预测婴幼儿语言能力，小龄组和中龄组亲子共读经验不能显著预测婴幼儿语言能力。表明对于促进婴幼儿语言能力发展而言，亲子共读具有“累积效应”，其作用随着婴幼儿年龄增长逐渐凸显出来。

     研究二以54对亲子(婴幼儿月龄30.56±7.79)作为研究对象，通过行为观察考察亲子共读质量的不同方面，包括共读过程中母亲语言输入的丰富性和亲子交互程度与婴幼儿语言能力之间的关系；对亲子共读质量和亲子共读经验的共同作用进行考察；通过行为序列分析(behavioral sequence analysis)对高、低亲子共读质量组母亲和婴幼儿的行为模式进行对比分析，识别出高质量亲子共读过程的特征。结果发现，相比共读过程中母亲语言输入丰富性而言，亲子交互程度与婴幼儿语言能力之间关系更密切。即便母亲所使用语言丰富程度很高，独白式的故事讲述方式也不利于婴幼儿语言能力发展；交互作用分析结果表明对于中龄组而言，亲子共读经验和共读质量存在交互作用，亲子共读经验是否能够促进婴幼儿语言能力发展受到亲子共读质量的影响。说明对于较小月龄婴幼儿而言，亲子共读质量尤其重要；行为序列分析结果发现高亲子共读质量组母亲更倾向于提出开放性问题，针对婴幼儿的回应母亲采用的反馈类型更丰富，反馈频率更高。

     研究三探讨亲子共读促进婴幼儿语言能力的行为机制，考察共同注意(joint attention)在亲子共读经验、共读质量和婴幼儿语言能力之间关系中的作用，并对高、低共同注意组亲子共读过程中母亲和婴幼儿的行为进行序列分析，识别出能够引起高共同注意的行为特征。结果发现，共读过程中的亲子共同注意能够显著预测婴幼儿语言能力，且亲子共读质量(亲子交互)完全中介于共读过程中母亲和婴幼儿之间的共同注意对婴幼儿语言能力产生影响。亲子交互程度越高，母亲和婴幼儿在共读过程中的共同注意水平越高，婴幼儿语言能力发展越好；未发现亲子共同注意在共读经验和婴幼儿语言能力之间的中介作用，仅较丰富的亲子共读经验并不能促使母亲和婴幼儿在亲子共读过程中保持较高的共同注意水平；行为序列分析结果发现，母亲更多开放性提问及更丰富类型、更高频率反馈与亲子共同注意及婴幼儿语言能力有关。

     研究四分别以39对(婴幼儿月龄31.51±7.56)和35对(婴幼儿月龄32.06±7.64)亲子为研究对象探讨亲子共读经验、亲子共读质量促进婴幼儿语言能力的神经机制，考察母亲和婴幼儿脑活动同步性(脑同步，brain synchronization)和亲子共读经验、亲子共读质量与婴幼儿语言能力之间的关系。结果表明，亲子共读过程中母亲右侧颞中回(middle temporal gyrus, MTG)和婴幼儿右侧颞顶联合区(temporal-parietal junction, TPJ)的脑活动同步性与亲子共读经验相关，且能够显著预测婴幼儿语言能力。脑活动同步性较高的亲子倾向于更早、更多开展亲子共读，婴幼儿语言能力发展更好。同时，共读过程中亲子之间有交互时母亲左侧缘上回(supramarginal gyrus, SMG)和婴幼儿左侧颞顶联合区的脑活动同步性显著高于无交互时，且亲子有交互时的脑同步与婴幼儿语言能力之间存在显著正相关，进一步证实了亲子交互的重要作用。

     综上，本论文从研究对象的年龄上对国内该领域研究做出了补充和拓展，有助于引起广大家长和教育工作者对在婴幼儿阶段开展亲子共读实践活动、提高亲子共读质量的重视；对亲子共读经验和共读质量的探讨更为全面；对在亲子共读和婴幼儿语言能力之间起作用的重要变量进行了考察，包括行为层面和脑层面的变量。其中对共读过程中亲子脑同步的考察更是该领域研究的一大创新和突破，为未来亲子共读领域的研究提供了新的技术路线，拓宽了思路。最后，本研究多处结果证实共读过程中亲子交互的重要性，为语言获得的社会交往理论及“对话式”阅读提供了支持，为广大家长和教育工作者开展亲子共读实践活动提供了建议，也为设计和实施亲子共读干预方案提供了科学依据。

       Shared book reading (SBR) is an activity in which parents or primary caregivers read picture books with children in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. As an ideal way of language input, shared book reading has attracted much attention from researchers and educators, and has been proved to be closely related to the development of children’s cognitive, emotional, social and especially language and reading abilities. The period of infant and toddler is a key stage of children's language development during which abundant stimuli is crucial. However, the domestic research on very young children in this field of shared book reading is relatively insufficient. Furthermore, the mechanism underlying the effect of shared book reading on children’s language development remains unclear.

Therefore, we designed and implemented four empirical studies among young children aged 8~46 months who were not yet in kindergarten and their mothers using a variety of methods and techniques including questionnaire survey, behavior observation and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine the relationship between different indicators of shared book reading experience or quality and children’s language abilities; explore the variables that play an important role in the relationship between shared book reading and children’s language ability  from both behavioral and neural perspective; analyze the behavior patterns of mothers and children in different types of shared book reading to depict the characteristics of efficient shared book reading process. We hope to further the research in this field, to arouse more attention on shared book reading practice of young children, and to apply some effective suggestions for parents and educators to carry out shared book reading activities as well.

      Study 1 investigated the status of shared book reading experience, including the begin time, frequency, duration time of shared book reading, and the number of books read in 165 dyads (month age of children 24.25±10.59) via questionnaire; evaluate the language ability of children via Putonghua Communicative Development Inventory(PCDI) and Mandarin Oral Language Screener – Preschool(MOLS-P). We examined the relationship between children’s language ability and different indicators of shared book reading experience, and also investigated whether the relationship was different in different age groups. The results showed that compared with the start time and frequency of shared book reading, the duration time and number of books read were more closely related to the language ability of children. Furthermore, the relationship between shared book reading experience and children’s language ability was different in different age groups. There was a significant correlation between shared book reading experience and the language ability of children in the older age group, but not in the younger and middle age groups. Further examination found that the month age of children played a moderating role between shared book reading experience and the language ability which suggested a "cumulative effect" of shared book reading experience. As the children grew older, the effect of shared book reading experience on their language ability became stronger.

       Study 2 examined the relationship between different aspects of shared book reading quality and children’s language ability in 54 dyads (month age of children 30.56±7.79 ) through behavior observation, including the richness of maternal language input and the degree of mother-child interaction during shared book reading process, and the interaction effect of shared book reading quality and shared book reading experience. Also we analyzed the behavior patterns of mothers and children of high and low shared book reading quality through behavioral sequence analysis to depict the characteristics of high quality shared book reading process. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between the richness of mother's speech input during shared book reading and children’s language ability in any age group ; nevertheless, the degree of mother-child interaction could significantly predict children’s language ability of older age group; there was a significant interaction effect in the group of younger children that the effect of shared book reading experience on children’s language depended on the quality of shared book reading. Behavioral sequence analysis found that mothers in the group of high shared book reading quality were more likely to raise open questions, and mothers' responses to children were more diversified in types and higher in frequency.

      Study 3 explored the behavioral mechanism underlying shared book reading and children’s language development, examining the role of joint attention. Also we implemented behavioral sequence analysis on the behaviors of mothers and children during the process of shared book reading to extract the behavior characteristics that can raise high level of joint attention. The results showed that the level of joint attention between mothers and children could significantly predict children’s language ability and fully mediated the relationship between the quality of shared book reading and children’s language ability but not shared book reading experience and children’s language ability. The more interaction between mother and child during shared book reading, the higher the level of joint attention was, and the better the child’s language ability. However, richer shared book reading experience did not lead to higher level of joint attention naturally. As for the results of behavioral sequence analysis, we found that more open questions, more diversified types and more frequent of feedback from mothers were associated with mother-child joint attention and children’ s language ability.

      Study 4 explored the neural mechanism underlying shared book reading experience, shared book reading quality and children’s language development in 39 dyads (month age of children 31.51±7.56) and 35 dyads (month age of children 32.06±7.64) respectively. We investigated the brain activity of both mother and child in a real and natural shared book reading situation using fNIRS, based on hyperscanning paradigm, to explore the role of brain synchronization of mother and child in the relationship between shared book reading experience and children’s language ability. In addition, we compared the degree of mother-child brain synchronization under the two conditions of mother-child interaction and non-interaction during the process of shared book reading to investigate the relationship between mother-child interaction, brain synchronization and children’s language ability. The results showed that there was a significant brain synchronization between mother’s right middle temporal gyrus(MTG) and child’s right temporal parietal junction(TPJ) which was related to shared book reading experience which could predict the language ability of children. Moreover, the effect of mother-child brain synchronization on children’s language ability was fully mediated by shared book reading experience. The dyads with higher brain synchronization tended to read together earlier and more, which benefited and the children's language development. Meanwhile, we found a significant difference in the degree of mother-child brain synchronization between the two conditions of interaction and non-interaction which located in mother’s left supramarginal gyrus(SMG) and child’s left temporal parietal junction(TPJ) that was significant correlated to children’s language ability which further confirmed the importance of mother-child interaction during shared book reading activity.

      To sum up, this research made some positive attempts in the following aspects. Firstly, studies implemented among younger children made supplement and extension to the existing domestic research in the field of shared book reading which could arouse more attention for parents and educators to read books to young children and to improve the quality of shared book reading. Secondly, we made a more comprehensive study on the relationship between shared book reading and children’s language ability based on the exploration of both effect of shared book reading experience and shared book reading quality, and the interaction effect of the two factors. Thirdly, the variables that played important roles between shared book reading and children’s language ability were investigated, including the behavioral variable of joint attention and the neural variable of brain synchronization. Particularly, the study on mother-child brain synchronization in the process of shared book reading was a great innovation and breakthrough in this field, which provided a new technical route for the future research on shared book reading. Last but not least, the results which confirmed the importance of mother-child interaction in the process of shared book reading provided support for the social interaction theory of language acquisition and the "dialogic reading". It also provided support for parents and educators to better carry out shared book reading activities, for relative apartments to develop early reading intervention programs and relevant policies of family education.