How to Teach Preschooler to Read
Teaching a Preschooler to Read by Reading Aloud (2)
In the previous article, we discussed the many benefits of reading to toddlers and preschoolers, such as enhanced vocabulary growth and better language development. We also talked about some ways of reading to your child to make reading fun and engaging. At the end, we mentioned that studies have found that preschool children pay minimal attention to the printed text in story books while being read to. So if a child focuses most of their attention to illustrations and not the print in books, how can reading to them help them develop print awareness? Don't worry, there is a simple technique to help you accomplish just that. But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's briefly talk about that study.
This was a Canadian study done at the University of Guelph, where the researchers tried to determine how much the preschool children focused on print in the books during shared storybook reading. During the study, a child sat on the lap of an adult, their mother or preschool teacher, while the adult read a storybook. The child wore an Eyelink headband which tracked their visual fixations. The studies found that the preschoolers spent very little time looking at the printed text leading to the conclusion that "preschool children engage in minimal exploration of the print during shared book reading." [1]
So, we've just spent the entire time trying to convince you that reading to toddlers early on has great benefits with helping them develop print awareness, but now this! How can preschool children possibly develop any print awareness and knowledge if they don't pay any attention to the printed text in the first place?
Great question!
Don't be dismayed by the study findings we just mentioned above. Our goal is to merely make you aware of the fact that young preschoolers pay little attention to printed text during reading sessions, and our goal is to help you learn about a simple method to change that.
How to Teach Preschool Children to Read With Print Referencing
That simple method we talked about is called "Print Referencing". So what is it?
Print referencing is a technique that allows you to "increase an emergent reader's knowledge and interest of print by highlighting the forms, functions, and features of print during read alouds". [2] What that simply means is that when you read to your toddler, use subtle methods to call your child's attention to the printed text on the page that you are reading. To accomplish this, there are several ways including verbal and non-verbal referencing techniques:
- You can ask simple questions such as: "how many words are on this page"
- You can point to the text in speech bubbles and tell your child: "the dog is talking, and this is what he is saying..."
- Explain to your child the proper way to read - reading from left to right, and top to bottom
- Point out words that are the same; show the preschooler words that are long and words that are short
- Point out same letters in upper and lower case. For example, "this is a capital S, which looks just like the lower case s, but it's bigger."
- Point to the text while reading from left to right
- etc...
The central goal of print referencing is to help focus preschool children's attention to the printed text that is being read. Large number of studies have found that toddlers spend very little time looking at print if the adult does not use specific behaviors that draws their attention to the printed text. Evans, Williamson, and Pursoo found that children spend less than 6% of read aloud time looking at print. This is hopelessly inadequate. However, Justice et al. estimated that preschool children who are read to using the print referencing method everyday may fixate on print 20,000 times more often than children who are read to without print referencing. That is a huge difference! I don't think I need to further highlight the importance of calling children's attention to printed text during reading sessions. =)
Okay, well, just one more. One study involving 106 preschool children examined the impact of teachers' use of print referencing during classroom storybook reading sessions over one academic year. The children were randomized to reading classrooms with print referencing or without print referencing. The results found that children whose teacher used print referencing techniques had larger gains in print knowledge, alphabet knowledge, and name writing. [3]
When we read to our children, we always make a conscious effort to use print referencing to help focus their attention on the printed words that we are reading. To keep things simple, with minimal detractions from the interesting story, we've found that simply pointing to the text while reading works phenomenally well. When reading to our children, we don't point to the text all the time, but probably about half of the time. We point clearly under each word that we are reading, and this also forces us to read at a slightly slower speed. While this non-verbal print referencing technique is the most often used by us, we also occasionally use other verbal methods as well - as some mentioned above in point form.
One of the first steps in teaching a preschooler to read is helping them develop some print awareness and knowledge, and print referencing is a fantastic way to accomplish that. Once a toddler is able to speak clearly, he or she can then begin learning to read. We have a superbly simple and truly effective reading program that will show you how to teach a preschooler to read through developing phonemic awareness. It is so simple and effective that it can even teach 2 and 3 year old children to read. Don't believe us? Click the link below to see how it is possible.
Click here to see how you can easily teach your child to read in just 12 weeks.
1. Psychol Sci. 2005 Nov;16(11):913-20.
What children are looking at during shared storybook reading.
Evans MA, Saint-Aubin J.
Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
2. Print Referencing During
Read-Alouds: A Technique
for Increasing Emergent Readers
Tricia A. Zucker, Allison E. Ward, Laura M. Justice
3. Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2009 Jan;40(1):67-85.
Accelerating preschoolers' early literacy development through classroom-based teacher-child storybook reading and explicit print referencing.
Justice LM, Kaderavek JN, Fan X, Sofka A, Hunt A.
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