Michelle adjusts her story reading behaviour depending on the level of the child with whom she is reading. For example, when reading with her daughter who is only at the beginning stages of reading, she explains, "I read the books to [her] from the library", but for her son who is capable of reading independently, "he reads them [independently] or sometimes, we go half-and-half." Pellegrini (1991) points out that when this adjustment is made, it demonstrates that the parents' have a level of competency as teachers. Jill also discusses reading with her son:

I read them and every so often he'll sit there and he'll…like if it's an easy, quite easy book he'll repeat the words after me. Now…he's been bringing home these books from school that he has been reading on his own. Um…but if it's a long book…Ah…Like I get him to pick out the book…but he's got books up there that are quite long…So he loses interest in the book…And then he's all over. Like he's not into the story whatsoever. But if I try to stop…he gets mad and takes a little temper tantrum.

Jane's reading is, likewise, somewhat unnatural and strained. Although, like Andrea, she was not under any apparent time pressure and her daughter is a patient listener, she appears to be highly task-oriented and focuses on getting the book read cover to cover as quickly as she can. Her daughter, similar to Andrea's daughter, remains a passive participant in the experience. There is no dialogue about the content of the book or any attempt to talk about the content and how it might relate to her daughter's life. Further, she does not discuss the book title or identify the author or illustrator, which would have been familiar literacy events from school. Upon completion of the story, I discussed this exchange with Jane; she indicated that this example was typical of a book reading event with her daughter.