The Impact of Reading Self-Made Personalised Books on Two- to Four-Year-Old Children’s Linguistic Expressions When Speaking about Themselves

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the impact of reading personalised books on the linguistic expression of two-to four-year-old children when speaking spontaneously about themselves during the sensitive period of self-identification. A natural experiment was carried out using self-made books, which consisted of personalised and non-personalised parts. The personal parts of the books, which reflected each child’s home environment and what they liked, were specially designed for each child. Thirty-six children aged between two and four years who attended an early childhood education institution participated in the study. The study sessions were recorded. The data analysis was conducted by applying a case study method, and the collected data were analysed qualitatively by assessing the content of the children’s speech, emotions and gestures. Five typical cases were identified and described. They substantiated that the personalised parts of the books consisting of pictures from each child’s environment encouraged them to use more words when speaking about themselves, to use more varied and complex means of linguistic expression when talking about familiar things, to choose appropriate linguistic means when referring to the self in the first person and/or to speak about themselves from the perspective of the other. The influence of the personalised parts of the books was not observed until the children started identifying themselves as separate subjects.