The influence of expressive vs. conventional typography on parent-child shared book-reading

Introduction Typography, that is, the typeface, size, style, color, or position of the type of the book, is considered an element of meaning-making. As such, it has been suggested that typography may relate to the nature of parent-child shared book-reading. This study examined parents’ attitudes towards expressive typography (changes in font, size, added letters, flipped letters), and how this relates to shared reading of books with expressive vs. conventional typography. Methods Participants included 72 parents (59 mothers, 13 fathers) and one of their children (41 girls, 31 boys) whose average age was 61.86 months ( SD  = 8.69 months). All parent-child dyads read two books with conventional typography and the same two with expressive typography in a counterbalanced order; all interactions were recorded and analyzed. Results Results revealed that parents were generally aware of a book's typography but didn’t necessarily see it as influencing how they read. Negative binomial regressions with generalized estimating equations indicated that the presence of expressive typography related to longer shared reading interactions and changes in parents’ tone and pace during shared reading. Discussion The study suggests that attitudes towards a book's characteristics may act more implicitly in terms of parents’ reading behaviors. Parents can be guided to look for typographic features in books and encouraged to consider them when selecting books for shared reading.