title: Talking after school: Parents' conversational styles and children's memory for a science lesson.
abstract: A scientist taught 40 4- to 6-year-old children an interactive science lesson at school. The same day, children talked about the lesson at home with a parent who was naive to the details of what had transpired at school. Six days later, a researcher interviewed children about objects, activities, and concepts that were part of the lesson. Aspects of parents' conversational style (e.g., open-ended memory questions, descriptive language) predicted how much information children provided in talking with them, which in turn predicted children's memory performance 6days later. The findings suggest that elaborative parent-child conversations at home could boost children's retention of academic information acquired at school even when parents have no specific knowledge of what children have experienced there.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA. Electronic address: michelle.leichtman@unh.edu.
authors.forename: Michelle D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Leichtman
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Kaitlin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Camilleri
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Pillemer
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Carmela C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Amato-Wierda
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Hogan
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Dongo
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D019359:Knowledge; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory; D009511:New England; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D010290:Parents; D012574:Schools; D012586:Science / Q000193:education*
keywords: Education; Information recall; Kindergarten students; Memory; Parent–child conversation; Science learning