The Ultimate Guide to Print Awareness in Preschool

Most children become aware of print long before the enter former schooling. Called print awareness, it is a child’s first experience in preschool literacy. Before children learn to read, they must first understand how reading and print works—and that’s where print awareness comes in.

We’re going to cover what print awareness is, how children develop deep concepts of print skills, and what teachers can do when students are struggling.

The foundation of early reading starts well before children sound out their first words.

Understanding the four domains of print awareness—functions of print, letter and word awareness, print conventions, and book conventions—gives children the tools they need to make sense of the text they encounter each day and why reading is important and helpful. This includes recognizing how books are held and read, knowing that print has meaning, identifying letters, and understanding that letters form words.

In a classroom filled with meaningful print and interactive literacy centers, children naturally begin to recognize letters in their own names, in familiar classroom labels, and in books read aloud. By combining the structure of print awareness with purposeful letter recognition practice, teachers can build the literacy skills that lead to confident, enthusiastic readers.

Read this: Understanding the Importance of Letter Recognition in Preschool

What is Print Awareness?

Print awareness refers to a child’s understanding that written language has a direct relationship with spoken language. Here is a little more about what is encompassed in print awareness:

• It is closely related to word awareness, the ability to recognize that spoken words have a written form.
• Print has multiple forms and uses.
• Print is a means of communication.
• Print is organized in a systematic and predictable way.

Other Terms for Print Awareness

To be effective in teaching preschool, it’s important to really understand print awareness and all that it entails.

The term “print awareness” is an umbrella term that encompasses the greater components of how print is organized for communication. Other terms hanging under the umbrella term that are related are:

• concepts of print
• print literacy
• print knowledge

Concepts of print is the most closely related to the formal print awareness term, but the other two terms are also sometimes used interchangeably.

Read this: Developing Reading Skills Birth – Preschool

Importance of Concepts of Print

Children with strong print awareness skills understand that written language carries meaning, much like spoken language carries meaning. Such children also understand that the two are linked. They understand that print can be read and have the exact same meaning as when those words are spoken.

Children who struggle with print awareness skills are more likely to struggle with learning to read. Their performance on print awareness tasks are a reliable indicator of their future reading achievement.

Because of the way our world is structured, many children begin developing print awareness skills long before they enter school.

Kids who are print aware have a leg up on their reading journey.

Print awareness is important to pre reading because it represents a group of skills that are necessary for children to become successful readers, just like alphabetic knowledge or oral language development. Print awareness offers a system of text organization for our brains as we learn to read.

Without print awareness children will not develop letter / sound correspondence,
word reading skills, or the ability to read and understand text.

Four Domains of Print Awareness

Developing concepts of print has three elements that work together to create print awareness and book awareness. Children will strong and solidified print awareness understand:

• functions of print
  • the knowledge of how print is used
  • as well as ways print is used for communication or enjoyement
• concepts of letters and words
  • knowledge of the distinctive features and names of individual letters
  • understanding of words as units of print that correspond to spoken language
• conventions of print
  • knowledge of when to use symbols that make up print
  • as well as where to use symbols that clary print (punctuation)
• book conventions
  • knowledge of how books or items of text content are used

Print awareness skills development helps children understand that print is organized in a specific way. For example:

• Letters are grouped to make words.
• Words are grouped to make sentences.
• Sentences are grouped to give information.

Shop our Preschool Literacy Lesson Plans

Engaging, ready-to-use lesson plans designed for early learners.

Print Awareness Skills

Print awareness skills also include concepts such as:

• reading from left to right
• reading from the top of the page to the bottom
• under sweeping or return sweep (finishing reading on the right and sweeping back to the left to start the next line)
• how books are held and navigated
• recognizing spaces between words

How Are Print Awareness Skills be Developed?

Reading aloud to children is an important element in building and strengthening a child’s print awareness skills.

However, the ability to understand how print works does not happen automatically. Children need intentional activities to support the development of these skills

Concepts of print are developed through the deliberate and active intervention of parents, caregivers, and teachers who point out letters, words, and reading materials in the child’s environment. Here are some ideas:

• providing repeated exposure to multiple forms of print
• reading, reading and more reading to the child (Read these five tips for teaching reading in preschool.
• providing access to letter and word games
• pointing out authors and illustrators of a book
• demonstrating how print is organized from top to bottom and left to right by finger tracking (Invite your child to point, too).
• encouraging children to explore the front of a book, and teaching how to identify the front cover from the back
• providing exposure to various forms of print via pretend and dramatic play
• singing, finger plays, and reading poetry (Our oral language preschool lesson plans are based in these).
• let your child or students see you writing, even if it is as basic as a grocery list or a phone number
• encourage your child or students to “read the pictures” in a storybook
• invite your child or students to turn pages of the book as you read
• providing exposure to, and talking about environmental print
• reading books with strong repetitive text

Read this: The Four Components of Literacy Instruction

What to Do if a Child is Struggling

When a child enters kindergarten, he should have a firm grasp on most concepts of print.

Preschoolers should master:

• how to hold a book
• identify the front of a book
• identify the back of a book
• where to start reading the story

Kindergartners should master being able to identify:

• a letter
• a word
• a sentence
• the end of a sentence (punctuation mark)
• a space
• the title of the book
• how many words are in this sentence

If you are concerned, talk to your pediatrician about developmental delays, or to a reading specialist in your school district about learning delays.

Read this: How to Plan Developmentally Activities in Preschool