ABSTRACT

Maternal interactions that follow after story reading provides critical learning opportunities; however, the differences in maternal employment on interactions after reading a story are not well-understood.The study aimed to profile employed and unemployed mothers’ interaction after a story-reading task in typically developing children between two to five years. The study followed a cross-sectional design with a total of 60 participants in three age groups. Maternal behaviors after a story reading were documented using the formulated checklist, and the responses were descriptively analyzed. The results revealed that employed and unemployed mothers had majorly similar interactive behaviors with some differences in certain behaviors. Some of the most commonly occurring interactive behaviors among employed and unemployed mothers were answering the child’s questions and story summarization; while the least commonly occurring, behaviors were rewarding the child for the correct answer or for attempting to answer and retelling the story on the child’s request. Though most interactive behaviors are practiced among employed and unemployed mothers, a small percentage fail to do so, indicating the need to educate and create awareness among mothers on the significance of interactions post a book reading session.

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