When you read to young children, you can take the opportunity to help them become aware of print. Print awareness is an important prereading skill.

Developing print awareness can be a casual part of your read-aloud time together. Here are suggestions:

• Help the child see the direction the print goes. Occasionally run your pointer finger along the text as you read.


• Read the title and tell her who wrote and illustrated the book. Explain that the author wrote the story and the illustrator drew or painted the pictures.


• Demonstrate how the table of contents and indexes work, and show how to use the page numbers to find specific information.


• If there is a dedication in the book, read it and talk about what it means.


• Point out punctuation. Concentrate on one type of punctuation at a time. Look for all the periods on the page. Another day, look for question marks together. Find examples of quotation marks, and explain that they tell us that someone is speaking.


• Teach young children how to carefully turn pages, and let them turn the pages for you as you read aloud. This reinforces the idea that we start at the front of the book and work our way towards the back. 

You can also help your child develop print awareness at other times of the day.

• Label some of your child's belongings with his or her name. The child's name can go on a jacket, on the bedroom door or at the foot of a bed, or on the tube of toothpaste.


• When you are in the grocery story, play a game of "Find the Letter." Take turns finding the letter "N" on grocery items that are placed in the cart, for example. Choose a different letter each time you go to the store.


• When you open the mail, read interesting letters aloud, or talk about who sent the letter. Explain how the return address lets you know who the letter is from.


• Cut out alphabet letters from magazines together and rearrange them into new words. Use the letters to make familiar words such as names of family members or pets, or names of favorite foods.

Helping your child become aware of print is something that can occur naturally over a period of several months. Keep it light and spontaneous, and you'll be providing a good starting point for future reading skills.

Marie Rippel is the author of the Beehive Reader series.