Justice, L. M., Kaderavek, J. N., Fan, X., Sofka, A., & Hunt, A. (2009). Accelerating preschoolers' early literacy development through classroom-based teacher-child storybook reading and explicit print referencing. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 40(1), 67-85.
According to my article, print knowledge, which is the understanding of the alphabet, sentence structure, and word spacing, is less heritable compared to math. Therefore, the environment a child is reared in has a lot to do with children and how they do with reading, writing and understanding print knowledge. If a young child falls behind in their print knowledge, it is an indicator for problems that arise later in life, such as illiteracy. If a young child has good print knowledge, then the stage is set for success in their studies as they develop into young adults preparing for college.
The purpose of this study was to find out that if preschool teachers read to their class using a print referencing style, meaning emphasis on sentence structure, alphabet, and words, would the children fair better with print knowledge at the end of the school year, compared to the teachers who read books to their classroom in their normal manner. Reading out loud using a print referencing style is not the natural style for most adults. 23 teachers signed up for this trial independently; 14 teachers were instructed to emphasize print knowledge in their classroom, while 9 teachers were instructed to read to their class as they normally would.
The randomized and controlled trial compared 119 disadvantaged and at risk preschoolers, most from a lower socioeconomic class, and how they scored on their print knowledge at the end of the school year. There were no details in the article on how each individual preschooler was disadvantaged, however some explanation may be because they are from a single parent home, in foster care, or were abused.
The method used for this trial is that each classroom was given the same set of 30 books to read over a 30 week period to their class, the teachers were instructed to read their book on Monday, then three other times throughout the week. The 14 teachers who read in a print referencing style had reference cards in the books to help give them ideas of print referencing. Some questions the teacher could ask to emphasize print knowledge to their class while reading a book are:
“Tristan, can you count all the words on this page?”
“Tristan, can you tell me where I begin reading at?”
The different fonts in the books or putting words in a word bubble coming out of the characters mouths, also helps emphasize the fact that letters make up words, words make up sentences, and so on, so books with different style font were favored when chosen for this trial. At the end of the 30 week trial, the preschoolers whose teachers used print referencing style while reading showed larger gains in 3 standardized measures of print knowledge, which are, name writing, alphabet knowledge, and print concepts such as space between letters and words, and sentence structure. The most considerable difference in scores between the two groups of preschoolers was their print concept knowledge. The children who were read to using print referencing scored almost double in print concept, then their comparison group. The children were each measured individually in a private setting, by examiners who were trained with specific criteria for measuring print knowledge. By reading this article, I found that it is very important to have a good base of print knowledge before children learn to read, and preschool is the perfect age to emphasize print knowledge. Using print referencing while reading to young children, seems relatively easy, and the gains made from using print referencing are proven to have a profound effect. As the mother of a preschooler, I want to make certain that his preschool teachers and family provide all the tools my son needs to develop his mind and body. This article offered me a proven step in cognitive development for preschoolers, that is easy to implement at home, and I will be sure to use a print referencing style when I read to my son in the future. For my career as a Physical Therapist, I plan to work very closely with Occupational and Speech Therapists, using evidence based practice and a multi-therapy plan for our patients, this article offers a new approach to helping children that need therapy, learn to read, write their name and recognize print concepts. This research article was very helpful for me, as a mom and for use throughout my career.