• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Banter Speech & Language

Banter Speech & Language

Sydney speech pathologists helping adults and children speak for themselves.

  • Home
  • Our Speech Pathologists
  • Shop
    • Speech
    • Language
    • Stuttering
    • Reading
    • Decodable Readers
    • Writing
    • Primary School
    • High School
    • Online resources
    • Business Templates
    • NDIS Templates
    • NDIS Training
  • Cart
  • Banter Supervision
  • Contact Us
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / Literacy / Preparing your pre-schooler to learn to read: skills to focus on first

Preparing your pre-schooler to learn to read: skills to focus on first

David Kinnane · 1 May 2017 · Leave a Comment

What can we do to help our pre-schoolers get ready to read without being accused of helicopter-parenting?

A lazy Google search will confirm there are loads of courses and programs marketed to worried parents of pre-schoolers. Many are not supported by evidence. (I shudder when I see glossy marketing for some of the drill-based, flashcard-happy “school readiness bootcamps” currently targeting families of 3-5 year olds.)  And many of the best evidence-based “school readiness programs” run mainly in cities and cost a small fortune.

Too often, the kids most in need of help with pre-literacy skills can’t access it.

Skills that promote later reading outcomes

Four main skills are linked to the later development of word recognition and reading comprehension:

  • vocabulary;
  • ability to understand and to tell stories;
  • phonological awareness; and
  • print knowledge (National Early Literacy Panel, 2008).

What does “print knowledge” mean?

The term “print knowledge” – also called “print awareness” – describes children’s:

  • interest in print (e.g. on signs and labels, in books and, increasingly, on screens);
  • knowledge of the names and distinctive features of various “print units” (e.g. alphabet letters, words, and sentences);
  • knowledge of the ways in which different print units may be combined in written language; and
  • sensitivities to the ways in which print:
    • is used for different purposes; and
    • is organised, e.g. in story books and other print genres or “text types”.

An important part of print knowledge is, of course, alphabet knowledge, which we’ve written about at some length before here.

Why bother with print awareness for pre-schoolers?

At “big school”, children are taught how to read. Evidence-based reading instruction includes phonics instruction. Phonics instruction emphasises the links between letters and sounds.

For children to make the most of phonics instruction in Kindergarten and Year 1, they need to know the letters of the alphabet. The more developed a child’s understanding of the alphabet during pre-school, the more success they tend to have (on average) in learning to read.

For example, one meta-analysis of the early predictors of later reading achievement showed that children’s knowledge of print – both print concepts and alphabet knowledge – was the most important predictor of later reading achievement. The study found that print awareness was more important than oral language and even phonological awareness (Hammill, 2004). There’s also a body of research showing that print awareness and phonological awareness improvements lead to longer term improvements in reading (e.g. Byrne & Fielding Barnsley, 1991; Piasta et al., 2012).

Which pre-school kids are most at risk for later reading problems?

As with reading generally, kids don’t set about acquiring print awareness and other pre-literacy skills on a level playing field. Some children are at a heightened risk of reading problems, including children:

  • from low socio-economic backgrounds (e.g. Noble et al., 2012); and/or
  • with a history of:
    • developmental language disorders and/or
    • speech sound disorders (e.g. Nathan et al., 2004; Lewis et al., 2011; Snow, 2016).

What kinds of evidence-based supports are out there to help pre-schoolers improve their pre-literacy skills?

  • Evidence-based practices anyone can learn, e.g. interactive story book reading (e.g. Mol et al., 2009).
  • Commercial programs, e.g.:
    • Specific courses for pre-literacy skills such as:
      • Let’s Begin with the Letter People (Abrahm & Company, 2000);
      • Doors of Discovery (Wright Group, 2001);
      • Literacy Express Preschool Curriculum (Lonigan et al., 2011); and
      • PreLit by MultiLit.
    • Broader courses with a pre-literacy stream such as:
      • Head Start Research-Based Developmentally Informed Intervention (Bierman et al., 2008); and
      • Evidence-based Program for the Integration of Curricula (Fantuzzo et al., 2011).

Overall, there is some decent evidence showing that literacy programs for pre-schoolers may have significant developmental value (e.g. see Mashburn et al., 2016).

But many of these courses are expensive: both for educators and (as a result) for their students; and require lots of training and materials to administer properly.

Are there any other (less “commercial”) options?

Yes.

Read It Again-PreK! (RIA) is an evidence-based pre-literacy intervention designed by Drs Laura Justice and Anita McGinty and colleagues. RIA is a 60-lesson, “whole class”, story-book based program targeting vocabulary, narrative skills, phonological awareness and print knowledge. Best of all, it was designed to “scale” easily and is available worldwide as a free manualised download – and only requires about $150 of materials (popular children’s books, many of which could be sourced second-hand or from libraries in a pinch). Free online training for providers is available via the researchers’ website.

In 2016, Dr Andrew Mashburn and colleagues (including Drs Justice and McGinty), published the results of a cluster randomised trial on RIA involving 104 pre-K classrooms (506 students) in a rural area of the United States. The researchers found (among other things) that RIA:

  • had a statistically significant positive impact on children’s print concepts; and
  • did not, on its own, lead to significant gains in children’s alphabet knowledge or oral language skills.

The study had some important limitations. For example, it’s not clear whether the program – which was trialled on US kids from a rural background – would yield the same results with city kids or kids from another place (e.g. Australia).

Several outcome statistics were measured and processed in multiple ways, which increases the risk of bias/errors due to so-called “data dredging” or “p-hacking“. And the program was tested by a research group that included members involved in creating the program (rather than an independent group).

Clinical bottom line

To improve later reading outcomes – especially for children at risk for later reading problems – pre-literacy training programs for pre-schoolers should target the development of vocabulary, narrative, print knowledge and phonological awareness skills. Several evidence-based programs exist to improve pre-school print awareness and other pre-literacy skills. But many of them are expensive and inaccessible to the children who need them most.

There is some promising evidence supporting the inexpensive and scalable Read It Again-PreK! program as a “whole of class” pre-literacy skills intervention for pre-schoolers. The program may be an option for children that cannot access another program for economic or logistical reasons.

Related articles:

  • Teaching the alphabet to your child? Here’s what you need to know
  • Kick-start your child’s reading with speech sound knowledge (phonological awareness)
  • Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works
  • How to help your school-age child to learn new words – the nuts and bolts of how I actually do it in therapy
  • Do we spend too much time on rhyming books? What else should we do to prepare pre-schoolers to read?
  • FAQ: In what order and at what age should my child have learned his/her speech sound consonants?

Principal source: Mashburn, A., Justice, L.M., McGinty, A., & Slocum, L. (2016). The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention on the Language and Literacy Development of Rural Pre-Kindergartners, Applied Developmental Science, 20:1, 61-78.

Image: http://tinyurl.com/kyy8de6

Hi there, I’m David Kinnane.

Principal Speech Pathologist, Banter Speech & Language

Our talented team of certified practising speech pathologists provide unhurried, personalised and evidence-based speech pathology care to children and adults in the Inner West of Sydney and beyond, both in our clinic and via telehealth.

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
  • Email

Print Friendly, PDF & EmailPrint Friendly

Share this:

  • Email
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn

Related

Literacy alphabet, letter-sound links, phonics, phonological awareness, pre-literacy skills

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Get in touch

115 Queen Street
North Strathfield NSW Australia
(02) 87573838
hello@banterspeech.com.au
Monday-Friday: 8.30am to 5.30pm
Saturday: 7.30am to 2.30pm
Closed Sundays and public holidays

Shop at our store

  • Australian SLP Employment Agreement Part Time Australian Employment Agreement Template for Speech Pathologists (Part-Time) $95.00 including GST
  • Think, Then Write (Volume 3, Part 1): A No-Prep Workbook To Learn Transitions $10.00 including GST
  • Compound Conjunction Sentences Builders: "so" $4.99
  • SVOC Sentences Subject Verb Object Complement (SVOC) Sentences $4.99 including GST
  • Stan has three cats: Early reading workout CVC CCVC CVCC Early Reading Workout - Stan has three cats: Dom, Don and Dan (CVC, CVCC, CCVC) $3.99 including GST
  • Blanks 4: Language comprehension booster: Why did it happen? $4.99 including GST
  • NDIS Complaints Management and Resolution System Policy Document and Complaint and Feedback Form $50.00 including GST
  • Split Digraph Minimal Pair Sentences o_e Reading Resource: Split Digraph ('silent e') Minimal Pair Sentences: o_e words $2.99 including GST

Store categories

January Featured Resource

  • Setting Goals for this Year: an Oral Language Workout $10.00 including GST

Recent articles

  • My child’s speech is hard to understand. Which therapy approach is appropriate?
  • Free preview: How to Supervise Speech Pathologists Properly in Private Practice
  • Selective Mutism: key things to know
  • Help your child to make inferences when reading

Featured Articles

What do you think about when you think about speech pathology?

Ask Us Anything: 17 things our readers and followers really want to know about speech pathology (but were too shy to ask)!

Language therapy works. But can we make it better?

Stuttering: what do we mean by ‘recovery’?

Lifting the lid on speech therapy: How we assess and treat children with unclear speech – and why

Too many children can’t read. We know what to do. But how should we do it?

I want to help my late talker to speak, but I’m stuck at home. What can I do?

Free Resources

Big book of child speech pathology answers

Getting ready to read at big school

Is your kindy kid really reading

The Scatter-Slayer Adventures

Free decodable: Book 1 of The Scatter-Slayer Adventures. The first in our decodable digital ‘select-your-sequel’ series for reluctant readers, aged 7-12.

Get our free resource

Subscribe to receive our blog articles

Check out our therapy and provider resources Go to our shop

Banter Speech & Language

Copyright © 2021 · BANTER SPEECH & LANGUAGE PTY LIMITED ·

  • Articles
  • Shop
  • Cart
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.