A study was conducted to: (1) gather data which would permit researchers to describe the teaching behaviors and language characteristics of parents during literacy events with their children; (2) analyze these data for positive or negative influences of parents' oral language on their children's participation in the reading/writing activities; and (3) determine any differences in these interactive behaviors between the first-of-the-year data and the end-of-the-year data. Ten families agreed to be videotaped with their first grade children during storybook readings and accompanying writing activities. Two at-home, parent/child tapings were scheduled; a third taping took place in school. Analyses of the first tapings indicated clearly that storybook time was when parents read and children listened. Two differences were apparent when the second tapings were analyzed. First, the researcher/child tapes and the curriculum of the classroom appeared to have encouraged parents to view their children as readers even though the reading proficiency of the children varied. Secondly, the language transactions between parents and their children were far more positive than early in the year. When presented with information about strategies to enable the natural development of literacy, parents were able to better support the children's learning strategies. Both linguistic and communicative competence grow out of children's meaningful and purposeful use of language in sharing what they know and are coming to know. (Forty-one references and two appendixes containing the Adult/Child Reading Partnership Coding System and the Parent/Child Reading Partnership Scale are attached.) (MG)