The purpose of this study is to explore the characteristics of parental roles and the parent-child talk in children's discovery museums. A sample of 41 family groups, which had a child aged 3-6, was randomly selected in the role-play zone at the Laoniu Children's Discovery Museum. The type of parental roles, the content and modes of parent-child talk in parent-child interaction were investigated. The results of the study indicates that parents play the co-player role for the longest time. As the interaction time goes on, parents gradually focus on playing the role of the onlooker, rid of a variety of roles they play in the initial stage of the interaction. In terms of the content of the parent-child talk, topics about exhibits take the largest proportion in all, with a large percentage of perceptual talk and conceptual talk in them. Besides, father's participation has a significant influence on the main topic of the talk. Families with a father are more likely to discuss game plots, while the families led only by the mother are more inclined to discuss the exhibits. During the interaction, the topics of parent-child talk gradually change from being about the game plots and exhibits to focusing only on exhibits. About the parental-child talk modes, the “interactive-dialogic” talk is given priority in all modes, which is almost throughout the whole game process in the role-play zone. The “interactive-authoritative” mode mainly appears in the initial and the end period of the interaction, while the “non-interactive-authoritative” dialogue mainly shows in the initial stage of interaction. The results imply that parents can timely adjust strategies to improve the parent-child interaction. It also provides the idea that educators in this institute can make full use of the exhibits or other materials to design game narratives in order to making sufficient parent-child interaction.
| 科 Family | 属数 Number of genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) | 属 Genus | 种数 Number of species | 占总种数比例 Percentage of total species (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 鹅膏菌科Amanitaceae | 2 | 11 | 5.26 | 鹅膏菌属 Amanita | 10 | 4.78 |
| 小菇科 Mycenaceae | 2 | 12 | 5.74 | 丝盖伞属 Inocybe | 5 | 2.39 |
| 多孔菌科 Polyporaceae | 8 | 14 | 6.70 | 蜡蘑属 Laccaria | 5 | 2.39 |
| 红菇科 Russulaceae | 3 | 23 | 11.00 | 小皮伞属 Marasmius | 6 | 2.87 |
| 小菇属 Mycena | 11 | 5.26 | ||||
| 光柄菇属 Pluteus | 5 | 2.39 | ||||
| 红菇属 Russula | 17 | 8.13 | ||||
| 栓菌属 Trametes | 5 | 2.39 |