The relationship of logical reasoning ability, oral language comprehension, and home experiences to preschool children’s print awareness

Abstract. The study examined the relationship of logical reasoning ability, oral language comprehension, and home experiences to preschoolers ' print awareness. Measures of print awareness were: letter naming, visual discrimination, auditory discrimination, and two measures which assessed concepts about print (knowledge about the purposes of print in the environment and knowledge about the processes in-volved in using print). Sixty three-, four-, and five-year-olds were tested on the measures of print awareness, logical reasoning ability, and lexical and grammatical comprehension of oral language. Information on home experiences was obtained by surveying parents on their own reading habits and the reading-related activities in which they participated with their children. Three measures—logical reasoning abili-ty, lexical comprehension, and home teaching activites—provided the best overall model in accounting for differences in children's performances across the print awareness measures. Most teachers would quickly assert that entering schoolchildren differ greatly in ability to benefit from reading instruction. At one end of the spectrum is the chil