Existing studies do not support a direct link between shared
reading and growth in phonological skills (e.g., Lonigan et al.,
1996; Raz and Bryant, 1990; Whitehurst, 1996). For example,
Lonigan et al. found that growth in preschool phonological sensitivity
was related to parental involvement in literacy activities in
the home, but growth in phonological sensitivity was not associated with shared reading frequency. Recently, Sénéchal et al.
(1998) reported that kindergarten and first grade children’s written
language knowledge (i.e., print concepts, letter knowledge,
invented spelling, word identification) was associated with parental
attempts to teach their children about print but not with
exposure to storybooks. In contrast, children’s oral language
skills were associated with storybook exposure but not with parents’
attempts to teach print.