Using environmental print to foster emergent literacy in children from a low-SES community

• An environmental print RCT intervention was used to foster emergent literacy skills in children from a low-SES community.
• Print awareness, print knowledge, and sound knowledge were significantly improved.
• Guiding children's interactions with environmental print supported emergent literacy growth.

Young children are exposed to environmental print within their communities and this print may be a useful resource to foster emergent literacy skills. This pre-post-test randomised controlled study examined the effects of using environmental print to enhance emergent literacy skills in children aged three to four years (N = 50) from a low-SES community in south-east Queensland, Australia. The 8-week (30 min/week) environmental print programme provided multisensory strategies for children to interact with environmental print by identifying letters and words, tracing letters with fingers, and writing letters. ANCOVAs were conducted with pre-test scores as covariates. Children in the environmental print group significantly out-performed the control group on print knowledge, sound knowledge, and print awareness skills. The programme had moderate to large effects sizes and showed that guiding low-SES preschoolers’ interactions with environmental print using multisensory strategies is an effective way to foster emergent literacy skills.