Two experiments tested how the number of illustrations instorybooks influences 3.5-year-old children’s word learningfrom shared reading. In Experiment 1, children encounteredstories with either two illustrations, one illustration or onelarge illustration (in the control group) per spread. Childrenlearned significantly fewer words when they had to find thereferent within two illustrations presented at the same time. InExperiment 2 a gesture was added to guide children’sattention to the correct page in the two illustrations condition.Children who saw two illustrations with a guiding gesturelearned words as well as children who had seen only oneillustration per spread. Results are discussed in terms of thecognitive load of word learning from storybooks.

Although a rich literature documents pre-literate children’s word learning success from shared storybook reading,a full synthesis of the factors which moderate these word learning effects has been largely neglected. This meta-analysisincluded 37 studies with 2,256 children, reflecting 104 effect sizes, investigating how the number of target words, tokens,story repetitions, reading styles and related factors moderate children’s word comprehension. Dialogic reading styles, tokens,the number of words tested and story repetition all moderated word learning effects. Children’s age, who read, number oftarget words and time between story and test were not moderators. These results provide information to guide researchers andeducators alike to the factors with the greatest impact on improving word learning from shared storybook reading.