Shared Book Reading and Bilingual Children’s Dual Language Learning and Socio-Emotional Skills

In English-dominant Singapore, Chinese families make decisions about shared reading quantity, language allocation, and reading orientation at home. This study examined these three dimensions among 39 Singaporean Chinese families with children aged 5–6 years and their associations with children’s language abilities and socio-emotional outcomes. Families reported an English-dominant reading pattern (73.9% English vs. 26.1% Chinese). Although 92.3% of parents valued Chinese exposure, their ideal Chinese reading allocation (44.7%) substantially exceeded their actual practice (26.1%); parents also reported stronger behavioral than cognitive reading orientation. In exploratory regression analyses, Chinese weekly reading time and parental Chinese proficiency were positively associated with children’s Chinese language ability, although the overall Chinese model was marginal; the English language model did not reach significance, and English weekly reading time was not retained. For socio-emotional outcomes, reading orientation and children’s Chinese language ability were positively associated with prosocial behavior, whereas the disruptive behavior model did not provide evidence of a reliable association. These findings suggest that home shared reading may relate to bilingual children’s language and socio-emotional outcomes through input-related and interaction-related dimensions, but require cautious interpretation and replication in larger, longitudinal samples.