Sustained attention, inattention, receptive language, and story interruptions in preschool Head Start story time

This study investigated the influence of story interruptions, age, and receptive vocabulary knowledge on sustained attention during multiple sessions of Head Start story time for 32 children, ages 45 to 67 months. Teacher interruptions of the story with relevant remarks increased class attention while nonrelevant remarks did not. Children with less receptive vocabulary knowledge were slow to focus their attention at the beginning of stories and were more likely to be inattentive after teachers had interrupted story reading for nonrelevant remarks. Sustained attention for stories increased with age. This relation was the result of the average length of distraction time decreasing with age, while the number of distractions was not related to age. Results suggest that improving receptive vocabulary knowledge and having an appropriate match between receptive vocabulary knowledge and environmental demands are important for sustained attention during stories. Also, teachers may positively influence attention through the use of relevant interruptions during story reading.