This article was downloaded by: [University of Birmingham]On: 10 October 2014, At: 21:19Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number:1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street,London W1T 3JH, UK

Early Child Developmentand CarePublication details, including instructions forauthors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gecd20

The impact of youngchildren's print awarenessin learning to readOlivia N. Saracho aa MarylandPublished online: 13 Nov 2006.

To cite this article: Olivia N. Saracho (1985) The impact of young children's printawareness in learning to read, Early Child Development and Care, 21:1-3, 1-10,DOI: 10.1080/0300443850210101

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0300443850210101

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of allthe information (the “Content”) contained in the publications on ourplatform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensorsmake no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy,completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Anyopinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions andviews of the authors, and are not the views of or endorsed by Taylor& Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon andshould be independently verified with primary sources of information.Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses, actions, claims,proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilitieswhatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly inconnection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.

This article may be used for research, teaching, and private studypurposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution,

reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in anyform to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of accessand use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

The impact of young children's printawareness in learning to read

OLIVIA N. SARACHO

Maryland

CHILDREN FIND print everywhere in their environment. Theydiscover print in toys, clothes, books, television, signs, captions,print containers, logos, bill-boards, and in their everydayexperiences. Their surroundings are full of print on stop signsand on cereal boxes; in scribbled letters, and in their writtennames; and the reading of familiar stories. Through theireveryday situations, young children become aware of print intheir environment and notice that adults employ print for avariety of reasons. Often, adults and older children includeyoung children in a print experience. They read stories to themor go to MacDonald's and read the menu. These experiencesprovide young children with information about print includingwhy it is used and how it is used.

Saracho (1984), investigating young children's understandingof the reading process, found that these experiences influenceyoung children's perceptions of reading. Most of the youngchildren's reading experiences involve reading pictures andlistening to stories. Although these children could not read,others read to them.

The environment in which reading took place also becamepart of the children's reading experiences. Reading experiencesoccurred in school, in the home, and in the community. Children

Early Child Development and Care

1985, Vol. 21, pp. 1-100300-4430/85/2103-0001 $18.50/0

© Gordon and Breach,Science Publishers, Inc. and OPA Ltd., 1985

Printed in Great Britain

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

O.N. SARACHO

arranged their world in relation to their perceptions. The writtenlanguage becomes part of the children's everyday world.Children's print awareness leads them to designate meaning toprint in the context of their environment. Some children'sawareness of written language and its uses guides them tonaturally engage in reading even before formal reading instruc-tion, sometimes even creating their own spelling rules, beforebeing considered literate.

The process of developing written language for young childrenis similar to that of developing oral language. Children learn oralmeanings and written language as they employ them in afunctional way. Clay (1972) examined a group of five-year-oldchildren who were entering the New Zealand's schools. Shefound that children were aware of print when they asked,"What's that say?" when they are viewing a television advertise-ment, or when someone tells them a story from a picturestorybook. They may say, "I can't read all the words but I knowwhat they say" (p. 28). She reported those children were readinga book, obviously not following the text, but employing abook-like pattern such as "Once upon a time . . . " or "Mothersaid, 'Do you want a piece of cake?'" Rather than the general"Reading is talk written down." The children displayed "BookTalk in a Special Way." In a study with the same age group ofchildren, Ylisto (1968) examined a group of preschoolers whohad experienced no formal reading instruction. In a situationalcontext they could respond to signs. As young children interactin a culture which is full of print, they become aware of andrecognize printed world symbols in an autonomous way. Theydetach the printed word symbols from the contextualized setting,categorize and organize it, and assimilate or systematize it intheir own language system.

As children react to written language in its contextual setting,they become aware of important characteristics in the written

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

YOUNG CHILDREN'S PRINT AWARENESS

language. Some children may even employ metalinguisticterminology to indicate their learning of rule structures. InGoodman and Goodman's (1979) pilot research, a child namedRoberta said, "Revco has the same face as my name" (p. 146).Read (1975) and others have found that children evolve rules ofwritten language through their invented spellings. Some pre-school children print messages by using an orthography thatthey have almost invented by themselves. They symbolizeEnglish words with the regular alphabet forcing them tocategorize specific phonemes in some manner, such as articula-tory characteristics or similarities.

Young children focus on their language, playing with itssounds, patterns, and meanings. Their enthusiasm and theirmetalinguistic awareness directs them to play with the language.Metalinguistic awareness, according to Cazden (1974), refers tothe capacity to manage language forms in and of themselves.The attention is not on speech sounds nor even on larger units,such as words and syntactic patterns. Children's focal attentionis on the meanings and the purposes of what the speaker issaying. This awareness allows children to become responsive tothe workings of thought and imagination, leading them tocommunicate meaningfully. Young children are actively en-gaged in meaningful communication as they search for meaning.They are motivated by the need to understand, becoming awareof the functions of print, and the features of print. Linguisticawareness can influence learning the reading process such asrecognizing letters, printing and reading signs. For example,when young children realize that the names of other childrenbegin with the same letter as their name (e.g., Robert, Raymond,Roy, Richard), they attempt to print letters which may or maynot resemble the actual letters, and read the bill-boards. Ehri(1979) believes that the children's pre-reading ability dependson (1) social class and cultural differences which have an impact

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

O.N. SARACHO

on language influencing children's linguistic awareness, such aschild-parent communication patterns differ with social class,(2) the children's level of intellectual development, and (3)learning to read facilitating linguistic awareness of print.Although print awareness is not the same as reading, it serves asa precurser to skilled reading.

In attempting to gain insight into the interrelationships ofreading and print awareness, Hiebert (1981) attempted todiscover preschoolers' knowledge about print. She found thatthree-, four- and five-year-old children learned that in theirworld there was both general and specific information concern-ing print. She found that all children knew something aboutprint. For instance, the three's knew the names of the letters andpossessed some level of visual as well as auditory discrimination.They also understood the procedures and reasons to use print.Hiebert's work demonstrated that the three- to five-year-oldchildren were actively involved in learning about print.

Children's print awareness seems developmental, expandingthrough the early childhood period. Saracho's (1983) worksupports these conclusions. She found that while three's foundreading to be a mysterious activity, four's began to associate thereading process with what was read to them, five's began toassociate reading with print, the six's became aware of nuancesin print, seven's perceived reading as learning, and eight'sperceived reading as reading books as well as learning to read.Similarly, Mason (1980) found that four-year-olds could printand were able to recognize letters and words. In Mason's study,parents helped young children to differentiate discriminablepatterns in letters, to observe that letters are reading cues, and touse letters in identifying sounds in words. While the results fromMason's study did not directly show the influence of reading tochildren or that providing reading opportunities can helpchildren develop scripts relating to the purposes and functions of

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

YOUNG CHILDREN'S PRINT AWARENESS

reading, it did indicate that parents can nurture children'sexperiences in relation to print awareness.

Children's reading progression affects the development ofconcepts related to the labelling of objects, such as the use ofletter symbols, letter sounds, and printed words. Such conceptsprovide young children with the basis for learning to readsuccessfully. Learning to read requires more than being able todifferentiate letter shapes, to draw those shapes, to enunciatesounds, to memorize words, to follow a print with the eyes, andto perform those skills which are essential in reading. These andsimilar skills by themselves are not as important as being able tounderstand the nature and function of reading. Learning to readcannot be reduced to a set of perceptual-motor skills, or towillingness and motivation. It is rooted in the deeper layer ofmeanings and nurtured by intellectual development.

According to Downing (1969), research studies on youngchildren's thinking have suggested five significant conclusionsabout teaching reading:

1. Young children's thoughts relating to reading and theirperception of its purpose and nature present the most basic andimportant problems for the reading teacher.

2. The young beginner's general modes of thinking varyconsiderably from those of adults.

3. Young children's different logic causes two serious prob-lems in teaching them to read and write:

(a) Young children have problems understanding the pur-pose of the written form of their language.

(b) Young children cannot deal with the abstract technicalterms that teachers use in talking about written or spokenlanguage.

4. Teaching formal rules (e.g., of phonics or grammar) toyoung children to develop their thinking is counter-productiveand may cause long-term reading problems.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

O.N. SARACHO

5. It is essential that rich and individually relevant languageexperiences and activities are presented to:

(a) guide young children correctly to the real purposes ofreading and writing, and

(b) assist young children's natural thinking processes todevelop understanding of the technical language concepts.

In the initial stages of beginning reading, teachers mayoverestimate young children's conceptions of the reading pro-cess. Such conceptions usually include, but are not limited to,the teachers' instructional language. Downing (1976) describesthe special vocabulary that the teachers use as a "readingregister." The teachers' vocabulary guide the children to developtheir concepts of reading.

A large number of research studies have examined thechildren's concepts of reading. Denny and Weintraub (1963,1966) found that over one-third of the children did notunderstand the reading process in learning to read. Many of thechildren thought that the ability to read would be supplied by anexternal source (probably the teacher). A few of the childrenresponded that reading would be acquired when they took theresponsibility for the reading process. Similarly, Reid (1966),using loosely structured interviews of five-year-old children,showed that the children seemed to lack any specific experiencesof the reading process. The children knew that they were notable to read and possessed almost no comprehension of theessence of reading. They viewed it as a mysterious activity, muchlike the three's in Saracho's (1983) study, and had obscureanticipations about the reading process.

Tovey (1976) taking a psycholinguistic point of view, ex-amined children's concepts of reading. Tovey found thatchildren had learned to consider reading as an oral activitywhere words were pronounced immediately after analyzingevery single letter in each word. Such a procedure indicates that

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

YOUNG CHILDREN'S PRINT AWARENESS

reading is viewed as a word calling performance rather than athinking performance. Myers and Paris (1978) concluded thatsecond grade children were aware of the impact several factorshad on reading including interest, familiarity, and length.However, they were less acquainted with semantic structuresfound in paragraphs, with the goals of reading, and withtechniques to solve problems in comprehension. Downing(1969), Reid (1966), and Vygotsky (1962) suggest that(1) beginning readers encounter great difficulty in under-standing the function of written language, and (2) beginningreaders possess an obscure concept of the way of individualsread, and have specific difficulty comprehending the abstractlinguistic terminology.

Research on young children's knowledge of reading supportsthe notion that school entrants vary in their level of knowledgeand in their ability to learn to read. Literacy is acquired throughactive participation in learning to read. Reading instructionneeds to build on the process of natural learning.

Reading instruction should include sets of reading situationsintegrated into scripts including dictating, writing, and readingstories; talking about the alphabet and its sounds; readingfamiliar signs and stories; and printing labels on pictures,projects, and personal belongings. Young children can developthese scripts relating to the purposes of functions of reading.Mason (1980) recommends activities such as discriminating andlabeling letters, calling out (reading) signs and labels, andprinting and spelling short words. Children develop conceptsabout letter characteristics through such activities as looking atsimilarities in letters and words, listening to stories, looking atbooks, writing names, labeling pictures, looking at books whilelistening to a tape recording or cooking from a recipe. Theseactivities force children to examine the relationship betweenprint and objects and between print and speech, and to learn the

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

O.N. SARACHO

ways that words can be analyzed into the sounds of its letters.Reading instruction is usually introduced to develop literacy.

Initial reading instruction is facilitated when children learn toread in as natural a way as possible. Goodman and Goodman(1979) proposed the following:

1. Know children's reading ability. Teachers can observe andkeep records of what children are able to read.

2. Maintain a rich reading environment. Teachers can provide arich environment where written language is regularly employednaturally and functionally.

3. Present work and play opportunities. Play can be used as amedium for learning reading and language. Young children canlearn letters of the alphabet when playing post office in theclassroom. Children can write letters and notes to classmates.Young children who are unable to write can draw their ideas onpaper. Other classroom playing experiences can include stores,kitchens, gas stations, play houses, and other dramatic playareas.

4. Read naturally with a purpose. Children can best learnreading if they are aware of the purposes for which people readsuch as learning about a message or appreciating a story.Reading should be integrated with the subject areas andclassroom concerns.

5. Integrate reading and writing. Reading and writing should betaught in relation to one another.

Children learn to read as they communicate through lan-guage. They must perceive the need to communicate throughwords and to be understood. Young children become aware ofwritten language and its purposes as they actually engage inreading and writing. Written language is developed through thesame process as oral language is developed (Goodman andGoodman, 1979).

Reading is composed of a series of skills required tounderstand or communicate ideas. Reading requires children to

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

YOUNG CHILDREN'S PRINT AWARENESS

decode written symbols. These skills are developed throughlearning experiences, which are conducive to the development ofrepresentations and need to be offered in early childhood(Franklin, 1973). A conceptual model on the foundations forliteracy can include;

1. Representation. A cognitive vehicle which uses an object orsymbols to communicate meaning.

2. Language complexity. A set of words or symbols communi-cating ideas.

3. Content. Topics, ideas, experiences, events, and imagesused in language as children reason logically (Rogers & Wolfe,1981).

Reading must evolve naturally in the same way that orallanguage is learned. A speaker does not need to be self-consciousabout the use of language units and systems. While it isirrelevant for the effective speaker to know linguistic theories, itis essential that the speaker knows the function of language. Inreading, print awareness can minimize problems with meaningand produce competent readers.

The impact of young children's print awareness in learning toread, probably makes a difference as children develop the typesof awareness and the terminology to express them. In thisprocess, they also develop their general logical thinking and theirmore sophisticated thinking about language which they laterneed. Obviously, that is an area which needs to be fostered in theearly childhood classroom.

References

Cazden, C.B. (1974). Play with language and metalinguistic awareness: Onedimension oflanguage experience. International Journal of Early Childhood,6, 12-24.

Clay, M.M. (1972). Reading: The patterning of complex behavior. Auckland: NewZealand: Heinemann Educational Books.

Denny, T., & Weintraub, S. (1966). First-graders' responses to threequestions about reading. The Elementary School Journal, 66(8), 441-448.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4

10 O.N. SARACHO

Denny, T.P., & Weintraub, S. (1963). Exploring first graders' concepts ofreading. The Reading Teacher, 16, 363-365.

Downing, J. (1969). How children think about reading. The Reading Teacher,23(3). 217-230.

Downing, J. (1976). The reading instruction register. Language Arts, 53,762-766, 780.

Ehri, L.C. (1979). Linguistic insight: Threshold of reading acquisition. InT.G. Waller and G.E. MacKinnon (Eds.) Reading research; Advances intheory and practice (Vol. 1, pp. 63-114). New York: Academic Press, Inc.

Franklin, M. (1973). Non-verbal representation in young children: Acognitive perspective. Young Children, 19(1), 33—53.

Goodman, K.S., & Goodman, Y.M. (1979). Learning to read is natural. InL.B. Resnick and P.A. Weaver (Eds.) Theory and practice of early reading(Vol. 1, pp. 137-154)- Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates Publishers.

Hiebert, E.H. (1981). Developmental patterns and interrelationships ofpre-school children's print awareness. Reading Research Quarterly, 16 (2)236-260.

Mason, J.M. (1980). When children begin to read: An exploration of fouryear old children's letter and word reading competencies. ReadingResearch Quarterly, 15(2), 203-227.

Myers, M., & Paris, S.G. (1978). Children's metacognitive knowledge aboutreading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(5), 680-690.

Reed, C. (1975). Lessons to be learned from the pre-school orthographers. InE.H. Lenneberg and E. Lenneberg (Eds.) Foundations of languagedevelopment: A multidisciplinary approach (Vol. 2). New York: AcademicPress.

Reid, J.F. (1966). Learning to think about reading. Educational Research, 956-62.

Rogers, C.S., & Wolfe, J.A. (1981). Foundations of literacy: A buildingblocks model. Young Children, 36(2), 26—32.

Saracho, O.N. (1983). Cognitive style and Mexican American children'sperceptions of reading. In T.H. Escobedo (Ed.) Early childhood bilingualeducation: A hispanic perspective (pp. 201-221). New York; TeachersCollege Press.

Saracho, O.N. (1984). Young children's conceptual factors of reading. EarlyChild Development and Care, 15(4), 305—315.

Tovey, D.R. (1976). Children's perceptions of reading. The Reading Teacher,29(6). 536-540

Vygotsky, L. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge, Massachusetts; MITPress.

Ylisto, I.P. (1968). An empirical investigation of early reading responses ofyoung children. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University ofMichigan.

Dow

nloa

ded

by [

Uni

vers

ity o

f B

irm

ingh

am]

at 2

1:19

10

Oct

ober

201

4