Print Awareness includes noticing print everywhere, knowing how to handle a book, and knowing how to follow the written word on the page.
Why Is It Important?
Children have to be aware of words before they can read them. They need to know how books work--which is the front cover, what's upside down and right side up, which page to start on, how to look from left to right on each line of text.
When kids are comfortable with books, with how to open a book and where the story starts and what those black squiggles are, they can concentrate on starting the decoding process.
What Can You Do to Help Build This Skill?
- Read board books that your child can handle on their own; let them turn the pages as you read together.
- Sometimes point to the words as you read.
- Talk about print even when you are not reading together. Look for letters and words on signs and labels and lists.