Yeah, It's Not Just the Reading

I love this article brought to my attention by LIS News today. It talks about the importance of print knowledge in a preschooler's journey towards reading. It's not enough to just read to kids - it's important to involve them in the words and print experience.  The blog post cites a study published in the May-June issue of the Journal of Child Development as one example:  "Ohio State professor Shayne Piasta and her coauthors report that when preschool teachers drew students’ attention to print while reading to them, the children’s skills in reading, spelling and comprehension improved. These positive results were long-lasting, too, still showing up a full two years later."

This is an early literacy skill that librarians have been working with parents to develop for many years now. I am glad to see it receive more study and more ink and publicity. The reading parents do with their kids with print knowledge in mind can be so much more enriching. Articles like this inspire me to keep going!