Gigliana Melzi
Biographic Data
| ID | 4087739 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gigliana Melzi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gigliana |
| FAMILY NAME | Melzi |
| SIGNATURE | MELZI G |
| AFFILIATIONS | New York University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4920-2095 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1995 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Latine caregivers’ storytelling with their preschoolers about science, nature, and identity
Family storytelling can support the development of children’s cognitive skills and sense of identity. The current study explored Latine caregivers’ storytelling as a resource for promoting their young children’s science learning. One-hundred and fifteen U.S. Latine caregivers were video recorded sharing a nature- or science-related story with their 3- to 5-year-old children and reporting why they shared that story. Most caregivers told autobiogra…
Latine caregiver math talk across contexts and its relation to child math outcomes
Teacher’s Use of English and Spanish Interactive Strategies during Wordless Shared Book Reading
Little attention has been paid to describing the ways early childhood education (ECE) teachers implement interactive strategies and the use of Spanish and English, in real time, to support Spanish–English emergent bilingual children’s contributions to shared book reading interactions. Video recordings from 19 ECE classrooms during shared book reading were used to conduct sequential analysis to examine the different types of interactive strategies…
Immigrant Children and Families
In this paper we discuss the value of multiculturalism in early childhood settings, barriers to cultural inclusion, and the importance of partnering with families of young children to enrich school learning and engagement. Examples from our work will provide illustrations of research-practice partnerships using asset-based, culturally grounded approaches and principles of co-construction to create school and community spaces of learning that hono…
Exploring the Language Attitudes of Dual-Language Latine Preschoolers
This study examined the language attitudes of 60 Latine DLL preschoolers at the beginning and end of the school year. At each time point, a matched guise paradigm was used to elicit language attitudes, whereby children listened to speech samples from two puppets, one speaking Spanish and one speaking English, and were then asked a series of questions about the puppets. Results showed that children held language attitudes favoring English over Spa…
Beyond the written word
Teachers’ sharing of picture books is a quintessential activity in early childhood classrooms, and has been found to be predictive of children’s language and literacy skill development. Although most research, to date, has focused on the manner in which preschool teachers share text-based books with their students, recent work has recommended that teachers include wordless books as part of their classroom book sharing routines. Yet, little is kno…
Stories beyond Books
Given the changing demographics of young children served by U.S. schools, educational equity practices must include ways of sustaining cultural heritage practices of children from ethno-linguistic, minoritized, and under-resourced communities. In the present study, we partnered with a bilingual Head Start serving mostly children of immigrant families from Latin American backgrounds to explore the effectiveness of a classroom-based oral storytelli…
Young children co‐constructing science
There is considerable agreement among scientists, educators, and policymakers about the need to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Yet, equity requires much more than increasing STEM access for marginalized groups of children. In this invited commentary, we raise two critical points for the field to continue to grapple with as we investigate ways to engage young minds in STEM learning. It is crit…
Latine Caregivers’ Approaches to Engaging Young Children in Mathematics
Code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers, specifically by examining its incidence, types, functions, and grammaticality. Previous work has investigated code-switching in younger children and in older children and adults, but relatively little work has investigated code-switching during the preschool years, an important time for dual-language development. This study t…
Por Los Niños
Immigrant families face unique challenges, most notably the active negotiation of two cultures not only at the individual level, but also in the context of family relationships. There is limited research exploring how immigrant caregivers of young children, in particular, experience this cultural negotiation in the context of parenting decisions and practices as these relate to their children's development and schooling. The current study sought …
Early Bilingualism Through the Looking Glass
During the early years, children's language skills are developing rapidly. For bilingual children, the development of both languages is highly sensitive to environmental input. Thus, capturing bilingualism in the early years poses a great challenge for researchers, especially those interested in examining how bilingualism might relate to other developmental areas, such as self-regulation. Traditionally, child development researchers have operatio…
The bidirectional nature of narrative scaffolding
Although caregiver narrative elaboration is seen as a critical dimension for children’s development of narrative skills, research has yet to show a predictive relation between caregiver elaboration and child outcomes for low-income Latino children. The present study explored whether specific types of narrative elaboration were predicted by and predictive of Latino children’s language and storytelling skills. Results showed that, whereas provision…
Ecocultural patterns of family engagement among low-income Latino families of preschool children
For the 5 million low-income Latino children in the United States who are disproportionately impacted by the numerous risk factors associated with poverty, it is essential to identify proximal protective factors that mitigate these risks and bolster the academic and social skills that are foundational to a successful transition into formal schooling. Using ecocultural theory as a lens to guide this work, the present study: (a) described patterns …
The Influence of Ethnic Match on Latino School-Based Family Engagement
Research has shown that the school-based engagement of Latino families is lower compared with other racial and ethnic groups. One possible barrier to school-based engagement of this heterogeneous group of families might be the lack of cultural match between families and schools. Addressing this under-researched area, the current study examined ethnic match between Latino caregivers and teachers at seven Head Start centers in a large urban area in…
Defining family engagement among Latino Head Start parents
Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions
The present study examined the narrative styles of Spanish-speaking Peruvian and English-speaking U.S. American, college-educated mothers as they shared a wordless book with their three-year old children. Results show two distinct book reading narrative styles: Storytellers, who act as the sole narrator of an engaging story with minimal child participation, and storybuilders, who co-construct the story with their young children. The two maternal …
Intimacy, Imitation and Language Learning
This paper explores how Spanish-speaking Peruvian mothers and their children use diminutives in everyday conversations, seeking to characterize the discourse forms and functions of diminutive imitation and to explore potential differences across speaker groups. More generally, we investigate how and why the use of diminutives may play an important role in facilitating conversational interaction and language learning. Findings illustrate the impor…
Talking About Past Emotions
Spanish diminutives in mother–child conversations
The present study examined gender and age patterns of diminutive use in conversations between 32 Spanish-speaking Peruvian mothers and their three- and five-year-old children. Results confirm previous findings concerning both parents' greater use of diminutives with younger children and children's early acquisition of this complex aspect of morphology. However, findings do not support previous studies on gender differences in parental use of dimi…
Cultural Variations in the Construction of Personal Narratives
This study examined cultural variations in narrative elicitation styles among 2 groups of mothers: Spanish-speaking Central Americans and English-speaking European Americans. Thirty-one working-class mothers and their preschool children were visited in their homes and were asked to talk about 4 past events the children had experienced. Results showed that Central and European American mothers' elicitation styles differed by emphasizing different …
Being Brave, Being Nice
Although much is known about the presence of themes of agency and communion in adults’ autobiographical stories, little is known about the presence of these themes in children’s autobiographical stories. In this paper we examine the extent to which children describe themselves and others as agentic and communal beings in ordinary conversational narratives. Subjects were 96 rural, working‐class children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Personal …
The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children
Preview this article: The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children: Cross-Cultural Observations, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/jnlh.7.1-4.26the-1.gif
The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children
Preview this article: The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children: Cross-Cultural Observations, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/jnlh.7.1-4.26the-1.gif
Shifting Boundaries in Home and School Responsibilities
Preview this article: Shifting Boundaries in Home and School Responsibilities: The Construction of Home-Based Literacy Portfolios by Immigrant Parents and Their Children, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/rte/29/4/researchintheteachingofenglish15334-1.gif
Defining family engagement among Latino Head Start parents
Ecocultural patterns of family engagement among low-income Latino families of preschool children
For the 5 million low-income Latino children in the United States who are disproportionately impacted by the numerous risk factors associated with poverty, it is essential to identify proximal protective factors that mitigate these risks and bolster the academic and social skills that are foundational to a successful transition into formal schooling. Using ecocultural theory as a lens to guide this work, the present study: (a) described patterns …
Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions
The present study examined the narrative styles of Spanish-speaking Peruvian and English-speaking U.S. American, college-educated mothers as they shared a wordless book with their three-year old children. Results show two distinct book reading narrative styles: Storytellers, who act as the sole narrator of an engaging story with minimal child participation, and storybuilders, who co-construct the story with their young children. The two maternal …
Cultural Variations in the Construction of Personal Narratives
This study examined cultural variations in narrative elicitation styles among 2 groups of mothers: Spanish-speaking Central Americans and English-speaking European Americans. Thirty-one working-class mothers and their preschool children were visited in their homes and were asked to talk about 4 past events the children had experienced. Results showed that Central and European American mothers' elicitation styles differed by emphasizing different …
Talking About Past Emotions
Por Los Niños
Immigrant families face unique challenges, most notably the active negotiation of two cultures not only at the individual level, but also in the context of family relationships. There is limited research exploring how immigrant caregivers of young children, in particular, experience this cultural negotiation in the context of parenting decisions and practices as these relate to their children's development and schooling. The current study sought …
The Influence of Ethnic Match on Latino School-Based Family Engagement
Research has shown that the school-based engagement of Latino families is lower compared with other racial and ethnic groups. One possible barrier to school-based engagement of this heterogeneous group of families might be the lack of cultural match between families and schools. Addressing this under-researched area, the current study examined ethnic match between Latino caregivers and teachers at seven Head Start centers in a large urban area in…
Latine caregiver math talk across contexts and its relation to child math outcomes
Latine Caregivers’ Approaches to Engaging Young Children in Mathematics
Shifting Boundaries in Home and School Responsibilities
Preview this article: Shifting Boundaries in Home and School Responsibilities: The Construction of Home-Based Literacy Portfolios by Immigrant Parents and Their Children, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/rte/29/4/researchintheteachingofenglish15334-1.gif
The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children
Preview this article: The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children: Cross-Cultural Observations, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/jnlh.7.1-4.26the-1.gif
The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children
Preview this article: The Mutual Construction of Narrative by Mothers and Children: Cross-Cultural Observations, Page 1 of 1 /docserver/preview/fulltext/jnlh.7.1-4.26the-1.gif
Being Brave, Being Nice
Although much is known about the presence of themes of agency and communion in adults’ autobiographical stories, little is known about the presence of these themes in children’s autobiographical stories. In this paper we examine the extent to which children describe themselves and others as agentic and communal beings in ordinary conversational narratives. Subjects were 96 rural, working‐class children between the ages of 4 and 9 years. Personal …
Cultural Variations in the Construction of Personal Narratives
This study examined cultural variations in narrative elicitation styles among 2 groups of mothers: Spanish-speaking Central Americans and English-speaking European Americans. Thirty-one working-class mothers and their preschool children were visited in their homes and were asked to talk about 4 past events the children had experienced. Results showed that Central and European American mothers' elicitation styles differed by emphasizing different …
Spanish diminutives in mother–child conversations
The present study examined gender and age patterns of diminutive use in conversations between 32 Spanish-speaking Peruvian mothers and their three- and five-year-old children. Results confirm previous findings concerning both parents' greater use of diminutives with younger children and children's early acquisition of this complex aspect of morphology. However, findings do not support previous studies on gender differences in parental use of dimi…
Intimacy, Imitation and Language Learning
This paper explores how Spanish-speaking Peruvian mothers and their children use diminutives in everyday conversations, seeking to characterize the discourse forms and functions of diminutive imitation and to explore potential differences across speaker groups. More generally, we investigate how and why the use of diminutives may play an important role in facilitating conversational interaction and language learning. Findings illustrate the impor…
Talking About Past Emotions
Variations in maternal narrative styles during book reading interactions
The present study examined the narrative styles of Spanish-speaking Peruvian and English-speaking U.S. American, college-educated mothers as they shared a wordless book with their three-year old children. Results show two distinct book reading narrative styles: Storytellers, who act as the sole narrator of an engaging story with minimal child participation, and storybuilders, who co-construct the story with their young children. The two maternal …
Defining family engagement among Latino Head Start parents
The Influence of Ethnic Match on Latino School-Based Family Engagement
Research has shown that the school-based engagement of Latino families is lower compared with other racial and ethnic groups. One possible barrier to school-based engagement of this heterogeneous group of families might be the lack of cultural match between families and schools. Addressing this under-researched area, the current study examined ethnic match between Latino caregivers and teachers at seven Head Start centers in a large urban area in…
Ecocultural patterns of family engagement among low-income Latino families of preschool children
For the 5 million low-income Latino children in the United States who are disproportionately impacted by the numerous risk factors associated with poverty, it is essential to identify proximal protective factors that mitigate these risks and bolster the academic and social skills that are foundational to a successful transition into formal schooling. Using ecocultural theory as a lens to guide this work, the present study: (a) described patterns …
Early Bilingualism Through the Looking Glass
During the early years, children's language skills are developing rapidly. For bilingual children, the development of both languages is highly sensitive to environmental input. Thus, capturing bilingualism in the early years poses a great challenge for researchers, especially those interested in examining how bilingualism might relate to other developmental areas, such as self-regulation. Traditionally, child development researchers have operatio…
The bidirectional nature of narrative scaffolding
Although caregiver narrative elaboration is seen as a critical dimension for children’s development of narrative skills, research has yet to show a predictive relation between caregiver elaboration and child outcomes for low-income Latino children. The present study explored whether specific types of narrative elaboration were predicted by and predictive of Latino children’s language and storytelling skills. Results showed that, whereas provision…
Code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of code-switching in the narratives of dual-language Latino preschoolers, specifically by examining its incidence, types, functions, and grammaticality. Previous work has investigated code-switching in younger children and in older children and adults, but relatively little work has investigated code-switching during the preschool years, an important time for dual-language development. This study t…
Por Los Niños
Immigrant families face unique challenges, most notably the active negotiation of two cultures not only at the individual level, but also in the context of family relationships. There is limited research exploring how immigrant caregivers of young children, in particular, experience this cultural negotiation in the context of parenting decisions and practices as these relate to their children's development and schooling. The current study sought …
Beyond the written word
Teachers’ sharing of picture books is a quintessential activity in early childhood classrooms, and has been found to be predictive of children’s language and literacy skill development. Although most research, to date, has focused on the manner in which preschool teachers share text-based books with their students, recent work has recommended that teachers include wordless books as part of their classroom book sharing routines. Yet, little is kno…
Stories beyond Books
Given the changing demographics of young children served by U.S. schools, educational equity practices must include ways of sustaining cultural heritage practices of children from ethno-linguistic, minoritized, and under-resourced communities. In the present study, we partnered with a bilingual Head Start serving mostly children of immigrant families from Latin American backgrounds to explore the effectiveness of a classroom-based oral storytelli…
Young children co‐constructing science
There is considerable agreement among scientists, educators, and policymakers about the need to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. Yet, equity requires much more than increasing STEM access for marginalized groups of children. In this invited commentary, we raise two critical points for the field to continue to grapple with as we investigate ways to engage young minds in STEM learning. It is crit…
Latine Caregivers’ Approaches to Engaging Young Children in Mathematics
Teacher’s Use of English and Spanish Interactive Strategies during Wordless Shared Book Reading
Little attention has been paid to describing the ways early childhood education (ECE) teachers implement interactive strategies and the use of Spanish and English, in real time, to support Spanish–English emergent bilingual children’s contributions to shared book reading interactions. Video recordings from 19 ECE classrooms during shared book reading were used to conduct sequential analysis to examine the different types of interactive strategies…
Immigrant Children and Families
In this paper we discuss the value of multiculturalism in early childhood settings, barriers to cultural inclusion, and the importance of partnering with families of young children to enrich school learning and engagement. Examples from our work will provide illustrations of research-practice partnerships using asset-based, culturally grounded approaches and principles of co-construction to create school and community spaces of learning that hono…
Exploring the Language Attitudes of Dual-Language Latine Preschoolers
This study examined the language attitudes of 60 Latine DLL preschoolers at the beginning and end of the school year. At each time point, a matched guise paradigm was used to elicit language attitudes, whereby children listened to speech samples from two puppets, one speaking Spanish and one speaking English, and were then asked a series of questions about the puppets. Results showed that children held language attitudes favoring English over Spa…
Latine caregiver math talk across contexts and its relation to child math outcomes
Latine caregivers’ storytelling with their preschoolers about science, nature, and identity
Family storytelling can support the development of children’s cognitive skills and sense of identity. The current study explored Latine caregivers’ storytelling as a resource for promoting their young children’s science learning. One-hundred and fifteen U.S. Latine caregivers were video recorded sharing a nature- or science-related story with their 3- to 5-year-old children and reporting why they shared that story. Most caregivers told autobiogra…
Psychology (23 works) · Developmental psychology (16 works) · Parental Involvement in Education (12 works) · Linguistics (11 works) · Sociology (11 works) · Early Childhood Education and Development (10 works) · Social Psychology (10 works) · Multilingual Education and Policy (9 works) · Narrative (9 works) · Reading and Literacy Development (7 works)