Participants for this study were 56 four-year-old children and their parents. All children were enrolled or on a waiting list to be enrolled in a preschool program in the Cache Valley area. A parent questionnaire and environmental assessment were utilized to determine whether a) the physical environment, b) behaviors of parents, and c) birth order of children is related to development of print awareness as measured by a print awareness test. A variety of statistical analyses was used to explore relationships among the above variables. Major findings suggest that the behaviors that reflect parents' attitudes regarding literacy are most important in the development of their children's print awareness. Fathers' use of the library and mothers' education are significantly related to their children's performance on the print Awareness Test. The amount of time that children spend watching videos is also significantly correlated to their print Awareness Test scores. Significant differences were found in what mothers and fathers do to prepare their children for reading, with mothers taking a more active role in reading to the children and teaching them literacy skills. Other notable findings suggest that the reading pleasure of each parent is important to their children's enjoyment in being read to and to creating positive feelings about reading. Parents tend to predict that their children will learn to read at about the same ages as they themselves learned to read.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between maternal perceived locus of control (PLOC), perceived self-efficacy (PSE), and mother and child gains during a mother-implemented early language and print awareness program. Thirty mother-child dyads (with typically-developing, preschool-aged children) were randomly assigned to either an immediate-training group (ITG) or a delayed-training control group (DTCG). The mothers in the ITG participated in 4 training sessions over the course of a month. Data about mothers’ use of target strategies, mothers’ responsivity, children’s knowledge of print concepts, and child language samples were collected at baseline, 1-month, and 2-months for both groups. The training program was efficacious, as evidenced by greater gains in the ITG mothers’ target strategy use, responsivity, and children’s knowledge of print concepts as compared to DTCG mothers and children respectively. The ITG children significantly increased the number of different words they produced during their language samples from baseline to follow-up. Mothers with a more external PLOC and/or a lower PSE score tended to use fewer strategies at baseline and make greater gains in strategy use over the course of training. Similarly, children whose mothers had a more external PLOC tended to identify fewer print concepts at baseline and make greater gains during training. Conversely, children whose mothers had a lower sense of PSE tended to use a greater variety of words and have a higher number of different words/number of total words ratio at baseline. The results of this study support the incorporation of maternal PLOC and PSE into evidence-based clinical decision-making and provide avenues for future research.

Thesis (MSL and HT (Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Speech-Language and Hearing Therapy))--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / The study investigated the effect of two shared reading programmes on the print awareness of 102 Afrikaans-speaking Grade R learners with language delays. The first shared reading programme focussed on print awareness while the second shared reading programme focussed on content and observable entities. Participants’ print awareness was measured subjectively and objectively, before and after intervention programmes. Results indicated that (i) both methods of shared reading affected and improved the print awareness of the participants; (ii) the participants’ print awareness did not improve optimally in order to acquire reading skills in Grade 1, even after taking part in the 10 week shared reading programme with a focus on print awareness; (iii) participants performed better in an evaluation where demonstration of skills and no verbal response was required; and (iv) participants with poor receptive vocabulary skills demonstrated limited carry-over of print awareness to other artefacts of print, such as the packaging of an iron.

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