What are they feeling? Let’s talk about it!

Children ages 5 to 7 years old. Only one child per family will be able to participate.

This study will take place on a video call, live with a researcher! Clicking on the “Schedule a time to participate” button will send you to an online calendar where you can select a date and time that works for you.

During the session, you and your child will read a short picture book together. Then, your child will look at a set of pictures showing different characters’ experiences and share their thoughts about how those characters might be feeling.

Before the session, you will also complete a brief survey that includes a questionnaire about your opinions and feelings in different scenarios, basic demographic information, and questions about your child’s language background, along with a vocabulary checklist. The entire survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete.

In this study, we are interested in how children understand other people’s feelings. Research suggests that shared storybook reading can support children’s learning about emotions, as stories often provide opportunities to talk about characters’ thoughts, actions, and experiences. However, we still know relatively little about how children’s everyday experiences with storybook reading relate to how they make sense of others’ feelings in new situations.

In this study, we examine how children’s experiences with parent–child storybook reading—and how families typically talk about stories, relate to how children interpret and explain characters’ feelings. Children will take part in activities where they think about how different characters might feel in a range of situations.

30-45 minutes

After you participate, we will email you a $5 gift code for Amazon.com within five days to thank you for your time (only one per child). To be eligible for compensation, we ask that you:
(1) ensure that your child is in the specified age range,
(2) make sure that your child is visible during the study session,
(3) your child is able to understand the simple English instructions used in the task.
Compensation is provided for participation and is not based on your child’s performance.